Making it clear that the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission (SEC) can't order re-election in a panchayat after declaring the results, the High Court of Madras has quashed the re-election ordered for the post of president of Kukumalankulam village panchayat, Cuddalore.

Justice N Anand Venkatesh has also directed the commission to declare R Jayalakshmi, the original victorious candidate, as the elected candidate for the post. The commission ordered the re-election on the grounds of confusion over the election symbols allotted to the candidates.

Asserting that such confusion arose only after the announcement of the result on Jan 2, the Judge said, “this is a clear after-thought & an apparent attempt made to dislodge the election process for reasons best known to the election authorities.”

The election officer had declared that the candidate who stood under ‘auto-rickshaw symbol’ had polled the maximum votes & won the election. That is where all of a sudden, some material alterations have been attempted to be made in Form 9. This alteration is now sought to be taken advantage of & there is an attempt to create confusion as if there was a mistake in allotment of the symbol, the Court added. 

Justice Anand Venkatesh said that “It is apparent from the material placed before this court that there was a clear interference in the election process from some unknown hand, who wanted the losing candidate as the successful candidate".

The Judge said, then this became legally impossible due to the overwhelming material, the commission has chosen to cancel the very election itself by pointing out some discrepancy in the forms.

He added that the material placed before the court shows that it is not a case of any discrepancy in forms but, it is a clear case of an attempt being made to materially alter statutory forms & subvert the entire election process.

“This court has the duty to set right the illegality that has cropped in conducting the election, in the peculiar facts of the present case,” the Judge said, highlighting the constitutional importance of the local bodies. 

Read Judgement

Source Link

Share this Document :

Picture Source :