The Madras High Court on Monday denied permission for counting the Nadigar Sangam election votes. The court was hearing the case filed by Vishal in June, where he sought for an injunction against the Registrar’s decision to indefinitely postpone the elections.

While the court in a special hearing on June 21 gave the go-ahead for the elections to be held as proposed on June 23, it had said that the votes cannot be counted until the next hearing on July 8. In this regard, the ballot boxes were being safely guarded.

When the case came for hearing on Monday, Justice PD Audikesavalu, who had passed the earlier order, has now further stayed the counting of votes. The case will come up for its next hearing on July 12, Friday.

During Monday’s hearing, close to 10 members from the Sangam including Jayamani, Sumathi and Shanthi filed an interim petition to be added as respondents in the case, which Justice PD Audikesavalu allowed.

Justive Adikesavulu further refused to take up the request to count votes put forward by actor Vishal’s counsel.

K Benjamin, a member of the Sangam, had moved the court to render the June 23 elections invalid since he was denied an opportunity to cast his vote. He had stated that the form to cast postal vote had reached him just one day before the elections.

When the judge heard this petition on Monday, he discharged it and recommended the petitioner to file a civil suit in a lower court.

The Nadigar Sangam elections took place on June 23 and recorded 1,604 votes out of a total of 3,171 votes in the union. The run-up to this year’s election was mired in controversy as the Registrar of Societies had cancelled the elections citing irregularities in the electoral roll. The election which happens once in three years took place previously in 2015. This time it took place after a delay of more than 8 months.