HC admits plea seeking to declare Jaya’s election void

Chennai, Aug 18 (PTI) The Madras High Court today admitteda petition by an independent who unsuccessfully fought the May16 Assembly polls from R K Nagar seat from where ChiefMinister J Jayalalithaa won, seeking to declare the electionas ‘null and void’. While admitting the petition, Justice M Duraiswamy issuednotice to the respondents, including Jayalalithaa, returnablein four weeks and posted the matter to September 16. Petitioner G Pravina alleged that her right to equalityunder Article 14 of the Constitution was infringed upon as theElection Commission had not acted on her complaints and soughta direction to hold a fresh poll in R K Nagar. Appearing before Justice Duraiswamy in person, she allegedthat the constituency’s Returning Officer had not evenpermitted her to go for campaigning, including using vehiclesfor the purpose. She claimed that the vehicles used by her were detained at"gunpoint" by police. Pravina said she had submitted a complaint to the Electionauthorities on May 15 against "not giving permission forcampaigning", but no action was taken. She had made a telephone call to Chief ElectionCommissioner Nasim Zaidi, who even after assuring action, had"not acted" on her complaint wherein she had sought eithercountermanding or postponement of the polls. Also, the pot symbol allotted to her was not as per thespecification of ECI, she contended. PTI CORR VGN APRSC