Madras High Court reserves orders on M.K. Stalin’s plea to declare him elected from Kolathur constituency

The Madras High Court has reserved its orders on a petition filed by DMK president M.K. Stalin, seeking to declare him the elected candidate from the Kolathur Assembly constituency after nullifying the election of TVK MLA V.S. Babu. The court's First Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan, deferred their verdict after hearing arguments from both sides.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) argued that the writ petition was not maintainable under Article 329(b) of the Constitution and Section 80 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which stipulate that an election can only be challenged through an election petition. However, M.K. Stalin's counsel, led by senior counsel Kapil Sibal, contended that the petition was based on a 2024 Supreme Court judgment, which allowed a runner-up or third-place-holder to request the checking and verification of burnt memory/microcontrollers in 5% of the EVMs.

The ECI had only begun verification of 14 out of 286 EVM sets in Kolathur seven days after the election results were declared, leading to the reservation of the court's orders.

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