Five assembly seats in Tamil Nadu will not hold by-elections at present

The Election Commission (ECI) on Monday told the Madras High Court that it has no plans to announce the schedule for the by-elections to five Assembly seats in Tamil Nadu until the pending election petitions are decided. Meanwhile, the court issued notices to the petitioners after the Tamil Nadu government requested to expedite the trial citing non-representation of these seats in the assembly.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan, while hearing the plea of ​​Venkatachal Patti, a resident of Palaimkottai in South Tiru Nile Valley district, also extended the interim stay preventing the Election Commission from holding by-elections till September 8.
In the previous hearing held on July 10, the court had issued notices to the Election Commission, Central Government, Assembly Secretary and Chief Minister Vijay seeking their response and extended the ban on the by-elections till August 24.
After this, former Karur MLA MR Vijaybhaskar and former Karur MLA C Vijaybhaskar filed petitions demanding lifting of the ban.
The announcement of by-elections to Trichy East, Karur, Ambasamudram, Viralimalai and Perundurai assembly seats was held up, though a total of seven seats including Maduraanthakam and Dharapuram were left vacant.
Today, when the matter was heard, the Election Commission filed its counter affidavit. It said that as per the directions of the Supreme Court, until the election petitions are decided, it does not intend to announce by-elections for these five seats.
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government requested the court to speed up the hearing, saying that currently there is no elected representative in these five assembly constituencies.
The bench directed DMK's defeated candidate Inigo Aryudhya Raj, who contested against Mr C Joseph Vijay from Trichy East, and other parties to file their replies and adjourned the matter till September 8. Of these seven seats, six were held by the AIADMK, while one seat was held by Mr. Vijay, who is also the founder president of the ruling Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK). The Assembly Secretariat had issued a notification declaring all these seven seats vacant and informed the Election Commission about it, paving the way for by-elections on these seats. However, petitions were filed challenging the success of the candidates elected from these five seats.
The Trichy East seat fell vacant after the resignation of Mr. Vijay. He had won two seats and decided to retain the Perambur seat in Chennai. Similarly, the Ambasamudram seat fell vacant after the resignation of incumbent MLA Eski Sabramiya and the Perundurai seat fell vacant after the resignation of MLA SJ Kumar.
Karur and Veeralimalai seats fell vacant following the resignation of former AIADMK ministers and then MLAs **MR Vijaybhaskar and Dr C Vijaybhaskar respectively.
The Maduraanthakam and Dharapuram seats fell vacant after AIADMK MLAs Murgatham Kumaravel and P. Satyabhama resigned from their posts.