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Chennai: Holding that he had suppressed his assets and sources of income in the election affidavit, the Madras High Court Thursday annulled the 2019 election of O.P. Ravindranath Kumar, the only MP from Tamil Nadu belonging to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), from the Theni Lok Sabha seat. The court held Kumar guilty of filing a faulty nomination affidavit.
However, on Kumar’s lawyer A.K. Sriram’s request, Justice S.S. Sundar granted a 30-day stay on the verdict, to allow Kumar to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Kumar, who is the son of former chief minister and expelled All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader O.Panneerselvam (OPS), was the sole winner of the AIADMK-BJP alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, where the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and its allies swept 38 of the state’s 39 seats.
While the AIADMK has refused to get involved in the matter, saying that OPS and Kumar were no longer part of the party, the DMK hailed it as a “landmark judgment”.
Kumar and his father were expelled from the AIADMK last year for alleged “anti-party activities”.
In December 2021, the AIADMK had witnessed a factional feud, between OPS and Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS). In February this year, the Supreme Court had held EPS to be the chief of the AIADMK. Earlier, in July last year, the AIADMK general council, attended by 2,460 of the nearly 2,600 members, had unanimously elected EPS as its leader and ousted OPS and his supporters.
Petition against Kumar
P. Milany, a voter from Theni, had filed a petition in 2019 under Section 81 of the Representation of the People Act of 1951, challenging Kumar’s election. She accused him of abusing his father’s position as the then deputy chief minister and using government resources to win the election.
The petition, which ThePrint has accessed, also alleged that Kumar’s brother had distributed saris, worth Rs 1,000 each, to bribe voters to vote for him in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Milany also alleged that Kumar had not disclosed his shareholding in a private company in his nomination affidavit.
The court in its judgment said, “This court holds that the affidavit filed under Rule 4[A] of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, has not been validly made. Further, this court holds that the Returned Candidate (OP Ravindranath) has suppressed his assets equivalent to the value of 15,000 equity shares in M/s.Vani Fabrics Private Limited allegedly transferred by the Returned Candidate in favour of his brother and other assets and sources of income as admitted by him.”
“Further, the third respondent has given false information in the Election Affidavit filed under Rule 4[A] of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961,” it added.
ThePrint has accessed the judgment.
The court also stated that the Returning Officer had failed to conduct the summary inquiry during scrutiny of nomination according to the law.
On the issue of corrupt practices in the elections, the court held that the petitioner was unable to establish corrupt practices as defined under section 123 of the Representation of People Act, 1951 (any gift, offer or promise by a candidate or his agent or by any other person with the consent of a candidate or his election agent of any gratification).
Declaring Kumar’s election void on the ground of improper acceptance of nomination and suppression of sources of income in the election affidavit, the court said his nomination was wrongly accepted, and nullified his election.
Interestingly, Milany has also filed a case against former CM and AIADMK general secretary EPS in the Salem Judicial Magistrate court, alleging that he had lied about his assets and education in his nomination papers for the Edappadi assembly seat in the 2021 state assembly election. The matter is currently sub judice.
‘Landmark judgment’
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Kumar had faced E.V.K.S Elangovan of the Congress and Thanga Tamilselvan of the T.T.V. Dhinakaran-led Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam and won by a huge margin of 76,672 votes.
Thanga Tamilselvan, who switched to the DMK in June 2019 and is now DMK’s Theni district secretary, testified as a witness in Kumar’s case.
Talking to ThePrint Thursday, Tamilselvan called the verdict a “landmark judgment”.
“There was evidence that Kumar had attempted to bribe the voters during the election campaigns, he had shown disrespect to the election officials, and the AIADMK members had violated the Election Commission rules and regulations,” he said.
Tamilselvan added that, even if Kumar appeals in the Supreme Court, he would face a similar verdict.
“This is a good verdict, but it would have been better if it had come earlier and triggered a re-election in the constituency, which would have raised more awareness among the people,” he told ThePrint.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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