The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the ongoing hearing before the Madras High Court on a petition, questioning the election of DMK leader Kanimozhi as Member of Parliament from Thoothukudi constituency for allegedly concealing PAN card details of her husband.
A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant issued a notice to A Santhana Kumar, a voter, on her petition challenging the validity of the HC's order November 19. The HC had then dismissed her application to reject the election petition.
Senior advocate A M Singhvi and advocate Joseph Aristotle, appearing for Kanimozhi, contended that her husband was a foreign citizen and did not have a PAN card.
In her petition, she contended, Kumar, who challenged her election, did not disclose why acceptance her nomination paper was improper.
“He has simply chanted the words like mantra, even though she had disclosed that her spouse does not have a PAN number. He has miserably failed to understand the provisions of Form 26 and has filed the election petition based on vague assertions bereft of facts,” her plea stated.
The petitioner against her did not disclose that he was a member of the BJP and contested TN Assembly elections in 2016, Kanimozhi said. She had won the LS polls with a historic margin of 3,47,209 votes on elections held on April 18, 2019.
Former TN BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan, who lost the poll, also filed an election petition against Kanimozhi but withdrew it subsequently on her appointment as Governor of Telangana.
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