Madras High Court dismisses plea to prevent resigned MLAs from contesting bypolls again

Resigned MLAs Maragatham Kumaravel and P. Sathyabama were declared as TVK candidates for Madurantakam and Dharapuram, the court said. | Photo credit: Special arrangement

The Madras High Court on Thursday (September 24, 2026) dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition seeking to stay the conduct of elections to the Madurantakam and Dharapuram assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu till the end of the main plea to prevent the practice of MLAs resigning from their post after the resignation of other political parties, just to give up their post.

The High Court First Division Bench of Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan dismissed the PIL filed by Chennai-based advocate K. Suthan. It held that the court cannot direct the Election Commission of India (ECI) to either prescribe a five-year cooling-off period before allowing the resigned MLAs to contest the elections again or insist them bear the entire cost of contesting the elections.

“It is for Parliament to take a stand on the issue,” the chief justice said. In his plea, the petitioner had sought strict rules for re-challenging resigned MLAs to avoid wastage of public money due to legislators who resign and seek re-election in subsequent by-elections only to escape prosecution under the Anti-Theft Act.

The petitioner insisted that either the resigned MLAs must be given a cooling-off period to contest the elections or they must bear the entire cost of the by-election. However, during the hearing of the case, the judges wondered how the courts can interfere in such matters when the law does not put any bar on the resigned MLAs in subsequent by-elections.

ECI’s response

ECI’s standing counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan also told the court that there was no legal requirement for the resigned MLA to bear the cost of the subsequent by-election and the Commission’s role was only to ensure that free and fair elections were held once the seat fell vacant. He said the ECI cannot probe the reasons for which the MLA resigned.

In his affidavit, the petitioner pointed out that as many as six persons – C. Vijayabaskar (Viralimalai), MR Vijayabhaskar (Karur), Esakki Subaya (Ambasamudram), P. Sathyabama (Dharapuram), K. Maragatham Kumaravel (Madurantakam) won assembly elections this year – S. Jayakumari (P. Jaya) AIADMK candidates but subsequently resigned as MLAs before joining the ruling TVK.

The ECI announced elections to only two of the six constituencies as the election petitions were pending in respect of the rest of the constituencies and the resigned MLAs, Ms. Kumaravel and Ms. Sathyabama, were declared as TVK candidates for Madurantakam and Dharapuram respectively, the court said.

Published – 24 Sep 2026 11:54 IST