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The Madras High Court connected Monday (June 1, 2026) closed arsenic infructuous a writ petition filed by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) successful 2016 for the behaviour of section assemblage polls successful Tamil Nadu by providing capable practice to the Scheduled Tribes (ST) and by ensuring rotation of reserved seats.
Justice M. Dhandapani closed the lawsuit aft advocator Richardson Wilson, representing the DMK, informed the tribunal that Justice N. Kirubakaran (since retired) had passed elaborate orders successful the lawsuit connected October 4, 2016, but kept the writ petition pending for reporting compliance of those directives.
The court’s orders
In its 2016 order, the tribunal had issued a slew of directions to the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (TNSEC) with respect to the behaviour of section assemblage polls. The State authorities was besides directed to amend the Tamil Nadu Panchayats (Election) Rules, 1995, to guarantee the disclosure of transgression antecedents by the candidates.
The tribunal ordered that a sub-rule indispensable beryllium inserted successful the 1995 Rules, astatine the earliest, mandating the candidates desiring to contention successful section assemblage polls to record abstracted affidavits, furnishing afloat and implicit accusation regarding their transgression background, astatine the clip of filing nominations.
The TNSEC was further directed to cull the nominations of candidates who neglect to record specified affidavits. The committee was besides ordered to publicise the request of filing specified affidavits among the candidates, arsenic good arsenic the voters, truthful that the second could instrumentality an informed determination earlier exercising their franchise.
“The Commission shall consolidate, record, and make a database of the details provided by the candidates successful the signifier of affidavits and upload them connected its website,” the tribunal had said, directing the authorities arsenic good arsenic TNSEC to code concerns regarding preservation of seats and purification of electoral rolls.
“The State Election Commission shall constitute to recognised and registered governmental parties/organisations, successful workout of powerfulness nether Article 243K of the Constitution of India asking them not to field/sponsor immoderate campaigner with transgression background/history for the section assemblage predetermination wrong 4 weeks to forestall criminalisation and hijacking of section bodies by transgression elements,” the bid read.
It went connected to state: “It is communal cognition that large governmental parties are fielding candidates for section assemblage elections, but astatine the colony level. The candidates fielded by them, should beryllium persons with integrity, honesty, and a consciousness of committedness to service society. However, invariably, galore candidates, who contention the elections, are chosen by governmental parties, based connected their affluence and musculus powerfulness and they are besides recovered to beryllium persons with transgression antecedents.“
The tribunal had besides remarked: “Of late, media reports uncover galore elected representatives of section bodies, belonging to assorted governmental parties, being done to decease owed to their transgression antecedents oregon amerciable mining operations oregon existent property business. When the State Election Commission, arsenic per the absorption fixed above, writes to each the recognised and registered governmental parties, calling upon them, not to tract immoderate candidate, with transgression background, the governmental leaders are duty-bound to spot that specified candidates are not chosen arsenic contestants. The offices of section bodies are not places for profit-making, but for doing work to society.”
