HC sees no vested interest in deletion of Pudukkottai seat
A Subramani
Chennai:
No `gerrymandering' was committed when Pudukkottai parliamentary constituency was abolished as part of the delimitation exercise, the Madras high court has held, dismissing a PIL that questioned legality of scrapping a constituency which was an independent princely state till India attained Independence. (Gerrymandering is manipulating boundaries with a view to establish political advantage for a particular party or group).
The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T S Sivagnanam, dismissing the PIL filed by Bar Association of Pudukkottai on Thursday , pointed out that there was no specific plea of mala fide raised in the PIL.As for the argument that the deletion of the constituency was done to protect the interests of some individu als or a political party , the court said: “The plea is absolutely vague and there is no material placed before the court to substantiate the plea.“
Referring to the fact that the PIL had been filed by the Bar association, the judges said, “The association is not a voter and hence it would not have locus standi to challenge the notification.“
It said the Supreme Court had pointed out that objections to delimitation of constituencies could only be entertained by the Delimitation Commission before the date specified. N R Chandran, senior counsel for the Bar association, argued that even though the name of Pudukkottai constituency was found in the draft notification before being deleted, no opportunity of being heard was afforded to people interested. He said Pudukottai was deleted to help certain individuals and that there has been “gerrymandering“.
