The Election Commission on Wednesday sought deletion of a part of a June 13 order of the Madras High Court pertaining to a provision of the electoral law for taking action against All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam supremo Jayalalithaa.
Making a mention on behalf of the Commission before a division bench comprising Justice Dharmarao and Justice S Palinivelu, senior lawyer C Rajagopal said Section 125 A was inserted in the Representation of People Act in August 2002, while Jayalalithaa was charged with furnishing false affidavits for filing nomination papers for the 2001 Tamil Nadu state assembly polls.
Section 125 of the RPA provides for imprisonment upto six months for filing false information in affidavits before electoral authorities.
The bench directed him 'to inform the other side (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP C Kuppusamy and Jayalalithaa) and come to the court on Thursday.'
Acting on the high court direction, the EC had on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta to direct the returning officers of Bhuvanagiri and Pudukottai assembly constituencies to take action against Jayalalithaa under IPC section 177 for filing false information before a public servant.
Kuppusamy had moved the court for action against Jayalalithaa under the same section.
In their June order, the Judges had directed the EC to take action against her holding that filing false information before a public servant fell under section 125-A (ii) of the RPA and was an electoral offence.
Jayalalithaa had filed nomination papers from Andipatti, Krishnagiri,Bhuvanagiri and Pudukottai constituencies for the 2001 assembly polls. In her nomination papers for Bhuvanagiri and Pudukottai constitutencies, she had said that she had not filed nomination papers for more than two constituencies.
