# Madras High Court says children in polls is matter for Parliament 2026-10-16T10:17:47+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets The Madras High Court on Friday, 16 October rejected an election petition against TVK MLA K. Sivakumar, ruling that an appeal by Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay to children to persuade their families to vote for his party does not amount to 'undue influence' or a corrupt practice under the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy said the law as it stands does not cover such acts, so courts cannot set aside an election on that ground. He called the involvement of children 'bad taste' and the parents' YouTube reels 'cheap and politically motivated', but stated that adults retain free will. The judge said it is for Parliament to decide whether such appeals should be prohibited or made a ground to nullify an election. ## Indian Opinion Analysis The two reports are uniform straight coverage of the same Madras High Court ruling, differing only in formatting. LiveLaw leads with the legal holding that the appeal is not a corrupt practice under the Act. The Hindu leads with the judge's call for a national debate and his criticism of parents making YouTube reels. Neither omits or overstates any element of the order: both report the rejection of the election petition, the legal reasoning on 'undue influence', the judge's disapproval of involving children, and the conclusion that adults retain free will. The balanced reading is that the court drew a clear line between bad taste and a legal ground to set aside an election. The only concrete open question the sources name is whether Parliament will decide to prohibit such appeals or make them a ground for election challenges. ## Coverage Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral - thehindu.com (neutral report) Leads with judge's call for national debate - livelaw.in (neutral report) Leads with legal holding on no corrupt practice This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Tags: C Joseph Vijay, D. Bharatha Chakravarthy, Madras High Court, Representation of the People Act, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/madras-high-court-says-children-in-polls-is-matter-for-parliament/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/madras-high-court-says-children-in-polls-is-matter-for-parliament/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/