The Madras High Court on Tuesday upheld the election of DMK's Seethapathy from Tindivanam (reserved) assembly constituency by a margin of 101 votes in 2016. Justice V Bharathidasan dismissed the election plea challenging the election filed by S P Rajendran who contested on an AIADMK ticket.
The petitioner had challenged the election on various grounds including improper receipt of votes and votes recorded in an EVM polling booth. According to reports, the petitioner had alleged that the DMK MLA’s son had handed over a bunch of postal ballots that were later mixed with postal votes registered by government servants.
He also alleged that the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) malfunctioned in one booth and yet officials continued to take its number into account. He claimed a discrepancy of 7 votes during the final count between the votes recorded on paper and the votes registered in the EVM.
"The election of the candidate cannot be declared as void unless there is clear and strong evidence compelling the court to accept the contention of the defeated candidate," the court said, dismissing the plea.
It could be seen that the petitioner's objections had been duly communicated to the Election Commission of India, and the ECI after considering all the materials, directed the returning officer to proceed further with the election process and declare the results.
Hence, the returning officer has acted in accordance with law in counting the votes in EVMs and declared the results, the judge said. "That apart, in the absence of any allegation regarding faulty EVMs, the ECI has taken a conscious decision not to order for a re-poll.
Further, in the absence of any strong circumstances, the contentions of the petitioner cannot be accepted to hold the election as void," the judge added.
(With inputs from PTI)