Center leaves ECI to take call on conduct of by-elections to five constituencies in Tamil Nadu

Advocate General Vijay Narayan, representing the Tamil Nadu Assembly Secretary, said that he could not take any side and therefore he too had nothing to argue on the PIL petition.

The Center on Tuesday (September 29, 2026) informed the Madras High Court that it has decided to leave it to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to decide on holding by-elections to five vacant constituencies – Tiruchi East, Perundurai, Ambasamudram, Viralimalai and Karur – in Tamil Nadu.

Appearing before First Division Judge Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan, Additional Solicitor General AR.L. Sundaresan said he had received a two-page message from the Union Ministry of Law and Justice asking him to have the case heard by the ECI.

Advocate General Vijay Narayan, representing the Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, said that he could not take sides and therefore he too had nothing to argue in the PIL filed by K. Venkatachalapathy of Tirunelveli for not conducting the polls until the related election petitions were available.

Senior Advocate G. Masilamani, representing Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, who won in two constituencies but withdrew from Tiruchi East and retained Perambur, argued that the ECI must review its decision not to conduct polls for five constituencies until the election petitions are available.

He submitted that the question whether the election petition or the other candidate would be declared a returned candidate if the election petition was allowed would arise only if only two candidates contested the election and not if there was a multi-party contest between many candidates.

The senior counsel said that in all the 234 legislative assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu during the general elections held this year, there was no possibility of any constituency having two representatives if by-elections were held before the election petition was disposed of.

He also questioned the standing of the petitioner to file the pending case and emphasized that none of the election petitioners approached the court to postpone the by-election. Senior counsel Satish Parasaran and Gopal Sankaranarayanan made their submissions on behalf of resigned MLAs Esakki Subaya and MR Vijayabhaskar.

Thereafter, the judges adjourned the matter to Wednesday to hear the arguments of senior counsel Dama Seshadri Naidu, assisted by Niranjan Rajagopalan, for the ECI.

Published – 29 Sep 2026 19:20 IST