By Sanjay Pinto
Union Home Minister P.Chidambaram is back in the news. This time it's not over the 2G case but about an election petition filed against him by his rival candidate Raja Kanappan in Sivaganga. Chidambaram was declared the winner by a narrow margin after a recount in the 2009 Lok Sabha election. The Madras High Court today rejected Chidambaram's petition to quash the case, effectively kickstarting trial. This has open the floodgates for demands for his resignation from opposition parties.
Chidambaram who is a lawyer must be aware that this challenge is not as serious as the 2G accusations. Over a 100 election petitions have been filed against members of the 15th Lok Sabha.
I've seen that election petitions take several years to be decided and are invariably disposed off as "infructuous" as by the time the judgment is delivered, the candidate's term would have ended! This has been a regular pattern with regard to election petitions. The Representation Of People Act may have prescribed a 6 month time frame for such cases to be disposed off but that is seldom ever implemented.
An elected representative who faces such a legal challenge has an option to file a preliminary objection and a 'strike off' petition. In Chidambaram's case, both these petitions have been dismissed. Many years ago, Chinnaswamy of the AIADMK from Karur faced a slightly similar situation. He overcame the challenge by having the trial stayed by the Supreme Court. Chidambaram too can exercise that option.
Even if trial goes on, the case will run its course for who knows how long. Will a verdict come out before his term ends in 2014? That's the big question.
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