Chennai: The Madras High Court on Monday dismissed a petition seeking an order to declare Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s left thumb impression on poll papers as “illegal”.

Jayalalithaa affixed her left thumb impression on form-B with regard to the poll nomination papers for Aravakurichi, Thanjavur and Thiruparankundram in the hospital, with Dr Babu K Abraham of Apollo Hospitals signing as a witness.

While the Election Commission of India already accepted Jayalalithaa’s difficulty in signing papers with her right hand due to tracheostomy therapy, social activist ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy filed a PIL claiming that affixing thumb impression is against the election code.

When the case came up for hearing, Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan rapped the petitioner for seeking publicity. The judges also asked why the petitioner approached the court since the matter has to be decided by the Election Commission.

The Madras High Court recently dismissed Ramaswamy’s PIL seeking order to direct the Tamil Nadu authorities to provide “real facts” about the health of Jayalalithaa, who was admitted to a private hospital since September 22.