Chennai: In a huge setback to the Home Minister P Chidambaram, the Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed his strike off petition against High Court's order of Aug 2011.
The Madurai bench of Madras HC told Chidambaram to face the case, disposing of his plea seeking dismissal of the petition by AIADMK's Raja Kannappan, who lost the election.
Chidambaram, who is already under Opposition scanner over his alleged involvement in the 2G scam, will now have to face the trial in the election case.
Chidambaram had filed petition that sought the dismissal of an election petition challenging his election to Lok Sabha from Sivaganga constituency in the 2009 general elections.
The petition challenging Chidambaram’s election was filed by RS Raja Kannappan, the AIADMK candidate who lost by a margin of 3,354 votes.
The Madras High Court on August 4 last year had rejected his plea to dismiss Kanappan's petition.
Following the verdict, Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy demanded Chidambaram's resignation.
Kannappan had also sought a recount of votes polled in the constituency, particularly in Alangudi Assembly segment.
Chidambaram’s contention was that the petition filed by Kannappan had certain defects and it should not be entertained by the court.
The case shot into national prominence when Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa wrote a letter to the chief election commissioner asking him to appoint Data Entry Operators of integrity and verify their credentials before assigning them to counting of votes for the elections held to the state assembly on April 13.
Chidambaram was declared elected by a margin of 3354 votes. He polled 3,34, 348 votes while Kannappan came a close second by polling 3,30,994 votes.
(With DNA, Agency inputs)
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