Image credit : Illustrative Image

DMK candidate for RK Nagar byelection Maruthu Ganesh on Wednesday moved the Madras High Court seeking Rs. 5 lakh compensation for the losses he incurred due to the cancellation of April 12 bypoll by the Election Commission.

In his petition, Ganesh appealed to the court to direct the poll panel to recover Rs. 5 lakh, which he had spent for poll campaigning, from people because of whose illegal activities the byelection was cancelled.

Saying that the Centre must also be directed to frame guidelines to ensure accountability of the poll panel for its actions and inactions while exercising its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution, he said “the ECI must be restrained from notifying the by election for RK Nagar constituency without first taking penal actions against the persons named in the income tax department’s reported dated April , which was the basis for rescinding the elections.”

Recording the submissions, Justice Ravichandrabaabu referred it to the First Bench headed by Chief Justice, as the bench in an earlier order had expressed its hope that the ECI would hold the byelection to the seat by December 31, 2017 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.