The Madras High Court on Thursday allowed an application preferred by Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni MLA Udhayanidhi Stalin and rejected an election petition filed by a voter challenging his victory in the 2021 Assembly election.

Justice V. Bharathidasan dismissed the petition filed by R. Premalatha of Chepauk on the ground that there were no substantial materials necessitating conduct of a full-fledged trial.

The judge agreed with Senior Counsel N.R. Elango, representing the MLA, that the plaint was bereft of material particulars and hence it should not be entertained by the court.

In his application, the MLA had stated that the petitioner had challenged his victory on various grounds such as making false statements regarding the criminal cases pending against him and indulging in corrupt practices but had failed to substantiate those allegations with material particulars.

He claimed to have disclosed details of all 22 criminal cases that were pending against him before various police stations in the State for indulging in public protests. The MLA said the petitioner had also made a bald allegation that the presiding officer of the election was his wife’s former teacher.

“The election petitioner, however, did not aver as to how the same had affected the election. Having stated that the presiding officer acted in collusion with the applicant, the election petitioner did not state what is the collusion and what are the things done by me so that I could answer the same,” the MLA said.

In reply, the petitioner’s counsel K. Sakthivel had contended that deliberate and intentional filing of a “false affidavit” had materially affected the outcome of the election, and therefore, the court must declare his election as null and void after ruling that the acceptance of his nomination form was not in accordance with law.

The petitioner also argued that the plaint should not be rejected at the threshold and that the MLA should necessarily be made to undergo the process of trial to prove his innocence.