Madras High Court imposes Rs 1 lakh costs on lawyer over bypoll PIL

September 29, 2026

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Tuesday imposed costs of Rs 1 lakh on a Chennai lawyer who sought to make six former Tamil Nadu legislators pay for the by-elections caused by their resignations and prevent them from contesting again during the current Assembly term.

A division bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan dismissed the public interest litigation filed by advocate S. Kasi Ramalingam, holding that the petition appeared to have been brought for publicity, and pointing out that the court had rejected a similar plea last week.

In its September 24 ruling on a petition by advocate K. Suthan, the Bench had said the law places no such financial liability or electoral restriction on legislators who resign and then seek to return to the Assembly through a bypoll.

The earlier petition had asked the court to direct the Election Commission of India to recover byelection expenses from the legislators concerned and bar them from contesting elections for five years.

The court held that the poll panel had no legal authority to impose either measure, and that the court could not give it powers it did not possess. It said any change to prevent legislators from resigning to switch political allegiance and immediately contesting from the same constituency would require legislation by Parliament.

It acknowledged concerns about the public expense of holding fresh elections but said those concerns could not justify restrictions created through a court order.

“The right to resign a legislative seat is by itself a facet of the constitutional scheme governing membership of a House, and cannot be burdened with extra-statutory conditions by judicial order,” the September 24 judgment said.

It also held that Article 324 of the Constitution did not give the Election Commission power to add new grounds for disqualification. A court, therefore, could not direct the commission to exercise a power that the law had not granted it.

Ramalingam’s petition named C. Vijayabaskar of Viralimalai, M.R. Vijayabhaskar of Karur, Esakki Subaya of Ambasamudram, P. Sathyabama of Dharapuram, K. Maragatham Kumaravel of Madurantakam and S. Jayakumar of Perundurai. All six had resigned their Assembly seats. Finding that his plea raised grounds already decided in Suthan’s case, the Bench dismissed it and ordered him to pay Rs 1 lakh in costs.