Madras High Court Issues Notice To ECI On Plea To Allow Only Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists To Contest From SC Constituencies

The Madras High Court, on Tuesday (7th April) has ordered notice to the Election Commission of India on a plea seeking directions to the Returning Officers to ensure that only those professing Hinduism, Sikhism, or Buddhism are permitted to contest in elections from constituencies earmarked for the Scheduled Caste community. The bench of Chief Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan ordered notice to the ECI and directed the standing counsel to take instructions regarding the plea. The court has decided to hear the plea on 9th April. “We'll issue notice. You seek instructions. Nothing is going to happen within 48 hours,” the court said, refusing to give any interim relief to the petitioner. The plea has been filed by Arjunan Sampath, founding president of the Indu Makkal Katchi (IMK). Sampath had submitted that as per Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950, issued under Article 341(1) of the Constitution, only persons professing the Hindu, Sikh, or Buddhist religion should be deemed to be members of the Scheduled Caste community. Sampath submitted that for the upcoming assembly elections in the State, several political parties have announced their candidates for these 44 constituencies. However, he submitted that as per reliable sources, 90% of the candidates do not profess Hinduism, Sikhism, or Buddhism and have converted to Christianity. He submitted that, as per Section 33(2) of the Representation of Peoples Act 1951, a candidate will be qualified to contest in a reserved seat only after declaring in his nomination paper that he belongs to the particular scheduled caste community. He submitted that the returning officer is duty bound to conduct scrutiny and examine the nomination papers with respect to caste determinations. He submitted that any candidate who has openly declared and converted to Christianity should not be permitted to contest from reserved constituency and his candidature should not be accepted by the returning officer. When the matter was taken up today, the court wondered how a returning officer could ensure the same. The court noted that the retuning officer would be scrutinising the application based on the application an certificate submitted by the candidate and wondered how the officer could conduct further scrutiny. “There's no quarrel in the proposition. But how to factually ensure that a person professing the religion is only filing. The election officer will only take care of that. Once the application is filed, they are declaring that they belong to this religion. Now, if you come with materials to show that he has converted, evidence will have to be let in,” the court orally remarked. The ECI submitted that it had issued directions to the retuning officers in 2008 itself to ensure that only those professing Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism are permitted to contest from the earmarked constituency. The court then directed the ECI counsel to get instructions on the plea and adjourned the plea. Case Title: Arjunan Sampath v. The Chief Electoral Officer Case No: WP 13425 of 2026

Madras High Court Issues Notice To ECI On Plea To Allow Only Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists To Contest From SC Constituencies

Upasana Sajeev

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