No bar on conducting byelection in Perundurai, Election Commission tells Madras High Court
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The Perundurai bypoll could be conducted before November 24, 2026 if the Supreme Court does not grant any stay, the EC says.
The legal bar for conduct of byelections in Perundurai Assembly constituency has ended due to the rejection of an election petition related to that constituency on September 8, 2026, the Election Commission of India (EC) has submitted before the Madras High Court.
In its written submissions filed in response to a public interest litigation petition pending before Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan, the EC said the Perundurai bypoll could be conducted before November 24, 2026 if the Supreme Court does not grant any stay.
The EC said the conduct of bypoll would also be subject to the Chief Justice’s Bench exempting Perundurai from an interim order passed by it on July 10, 2026 restraining the commission from notifying bypolls to five vacant constituencies with respect to which election petitions were pending in the High Court.
In so far as the other four constituencies -- Tiruchi East, Ambasamudram, Viralimalai and Karur -- were concerned, the EC said the byelections cannot be notified to them until the election petitions, filed along with a plea to declare either those petitioners or other candidates as returned candidates, were decided.
Though Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, who had vacated Tiruchi East and retained Perambur after winning from both the seats in the general elections, had contended that he resigned even before the filing of an election petition by DMK candidate S. Inigo Irudayaraj, the EC said the timing of the resignation was immaterial.
The Commission said it would not matter whether an election petition was filed either before or after the resignation because either way a constituency might end up facing an anomalous situation of being represented by two individuals if someone else gets declared as returned candidate by the election tribunal (High Court) after the conduct of bypolls.
Claiming that the deferment of bypolls was “neither indefinite nor indiscriminate,” the EC said the bar would come to an end immediately after the election tribunal disposes of a plea made along with an election petition to declare either the petitioner or some other candidate as returned candidate.
“This has already happened for Perundurai constituency,” the Commission said, and underlined that Section 86(7) of the Representation of People Act, 1951 requires every election petition to be disposed of as expeditiously as possible with an endeavour to conclude the trial within six months.
“The Commission fully recognises the importance of every constituency being represented... The Commission would welcome any direction this court considers appropriate for the expeditious disposal ofthe pending election petitions,” the EC’s written submissions read.
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