Rs 5,000 cost imposed on ex-DMK MLA

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has imposed a cost of Rs 5,000 on former DMK MLA S Mathiarasan, who was elected from the Ilayangudi Assembly constituency in the bye-election held in August, 2009, for filing a motivated application to dismiss a petition challenging his election by Makkal Maanadu Katchi candidate K Kalaimani.“This application has been filed (by Mathiarasan) with the ulterior motive of thwarting the regular proceedings of the election petition (filed by Kalaimani) .......,’’ Justice V Dhanapalan has observed. Originally, Kalaimani filed a petition seeking to declare the rejection of his nomination papers by the Returning Officer (RO) as improper and illegal. While so, Mathiarasan filed the present application to dismiss the election petition.Dismissing Mathiarasan’s application, the judge observed that no substantial grounds were raised in the application to reject the election petition. The election petition did not disclose any pleadings, which were unnecessary, scandalous, frivolous or vexatious, tending to prejudice, embarrass or delay the fair trial or abuse the process of the court, the judge said.The Supreme Court had held that when the election petition contained material facts, it was not liable to be dismissed at the threshold. In that case, the Supreme Court had imposed a cost of `25,000 on the applicant therein. “Therefore, this application is dismissed with a cost of `5,000 payable by applicant (Mathiarasan) to the election petitioner (Kalaimani),’’ the judge said, and posted the main election petition for further hearing on August 9.