Resigned MLAs seeking re-election in bypolls may amount to insulting voters: Madras High Court judge
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TVK’s Madurantakam and Dharapuram candidates for the bypolls, Maragatham Kumaravel and P. Sathyabama | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
An elected Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) resigning his/her post only to recontest on behalf of another political party in the consequent bye-election may amount to insulting the voters and the choice they had made at the first instance, said Justice S.M. Subramaniam of the Madras High Court on Wednesday (September 16, 2026).
Presiding over the second Division Bench, along with Justice K. Govindarajan, the seniormost judge of the High Court asked why the Election Commission of India (ECI) should not examine the issue in detail and come up with guidelines, by exercising its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution, to prevent this “mockery of democracy.”
The oral observations were made during the hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by Chennai-based advocate K. Suthan, who had insisted that the practice of elected legislators resigning their post, only to seek re-election from the same constituencies after joining other political parties, be prevented.
Senior counsel R. Singaravelan, representing the PIL petitioner, brought to the notice of the court that as many as six All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) MLAs in Tamil Nadu had resigned their post after the conclusion of the general elections this year and joined the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK).
Two of them – Maragatham Kumaravel and P. Sathyabama – have now been named the TVK’s candidates to fill the vacancies caused by their own resignations in the Madurantakam and Dharapuram constituencies. The court was also told that the ECI had notified the bye-elections only to these two constituencies and not to others.
If the practice of legislators resigning their post only to recontest the bypolls as candidates of other political parties was left unchecked, without any regulations whatsoever, a situation may arise in the future of en masse resignations causing a huge dent to the public exchequer in conducting bye-elections, the counsel argued.
Finding force in his submisisons, Justice Subramaniam said that no one could prevent a legislator from resigning, but the problem would arise only when he/she seeks re-election to fill the vacancy caused by his/her resignation. The judge said that either Parliament or the ECI must examine the peculiar circumstance.
However, when Advocate General Vijay Narayan pointed out that the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan had already reserved orders on a writ petition challenging the acceptance of the resignation of six MLAs, Justice Subramaniam’s Bench decided to simply adjourn the PIL plea to Friday (September 18) so that it could be heard by the first Bench after the Chief Justice returns from his present sitting at the Madurai Bench of the High Court.
In his submissions, the A-G also told the second Bench that the law, as it stands today, does not prevent resigned MLAs from recontesting in bypolls and therefore, the PIL petitioner’s plea to stall the bye-elections to the Madurantakam and Dharapuram constituencies could not be countenanced at all.
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