Kerala High Court rejects petition challenging Congress MP KC Venugopal's election

The Kerala High Court today rejected a petition filed challenging the 2024 election win of Congress leader and Member of Parliament (MP) KC Venugopal, from the Alappuzha constituency in the 2024 General Elections [AM Ariff v KC Venugopal & ors].

Justice G Girish has dismissed the election petition filed in the matter by former Member of Parliament (MP) and CPI(M) leader AM Ariff.

"Election petition rejected under Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC)," the Court stated.

Order VII Rule 11 of the CPC empowers courts to summarily reject a plaint or a petition at the threshold, without examining its merits on certain grounds. The grounds on which the petition is so rejected could be for a failure to disclose a cause of action, undervaluation or insufficient court fee, or when the suit appears to be barred by law.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Venugopal had defeated Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate Ariff by a margin of 63,513 votes.

Ariff later contested this turn of events. He claimed that Venugopal's election was marred by corrupt practices during the election campaign.

The matter was placed before Justice Girish after Justice A Badharudeen recused from hearing the petition in May this year. Justice Girish today summarily dismissed Ariff's election petition.

Advocate J Om Prakash appeared for Ariff.

Senior counsel S Sreekumar, along with advocates Thomas P Kuruvilla, R Githesh, Harikrishnan S, Ajay Ben Jose, Manjunath Menon, Sachin Jacob Ambat, Anna Linda Eden, Hani P Nair, Naveen A Varkey and Cyriac Tom appeared for Venugopal.