Election petition: Tamil Nadu CM Vijay produces Kodaikanal land sale deed before Madras High Court

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay. File | Photo Credit: S. Siva Saravanan

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay has produced before the Madras High Court a sale deed to prove that he had, in fact, purchased 50 cents of land at Vilpatti village in Kodaikanal in 1997, as declared in his election affidavit while contesting from the Perambur constituency this year.

The sale deed was produced before Justice V. Lakshminarayanan, who is seized of an election petition filed by a voter, S. Dinesh, urging the court to declare Mr. Vijay’s victory from the Perambur constituency null and void on the ground of false declarations and misdeclarations in his election affidavit.

In the petition, filed through his counsel on record, V.R. Shanmuganathan, the voter had claimed that the Vilpatti property had actually been classified as ‘Government Poramboke’ land as per the Village ‘A’ register, a land record which the petitioner had downloaded from the State government’s website.

When the judge wanted to know whether he, as the presiding officer of an election tribunal, could decide the title of a property when confronted with conflicting documents, the petitioner’s arguing counsel replied: “Definitely MiLord. Your Lordship can render a finding on the issue.”