‘Get instructions on plea to upload info on co-op polls’, says Madras HC

CHENNAI: A Division Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday directed the counsel for Tamil Nadu State Co-operative Election Commission to obtain instructions on Public Interest Litigation petitions seeking to upload all information relating to co-operative elections in the State in its website.A Bench of Justices T S Sivagnanam and N Seshasayee gave the directive when Public Interest Litigations from V R Annamalai and another came up for hearing on Friday. The matter will be taken up on April 13.

According to Annamalai, a former president of Uthiramerur Town Co-operative Society in Kancheepuram district, the commission had notified elections to 18,775 societies from March 12 to April 28 in four stages. There were largescale malpractices and the entire election process was being done in an undemocratic manner without any transparency during the first and second phases. There were also reports in the media reflecting the grievance of the candidates, whose candidatures were rejected at the initial stage itself. Several writ petitions were filed before the Madras High Court challenging the entire election process, the petitioner said.

A co-operative society is a constitutionally recognised body and any tampering by the State would amount to denying the constitutional right and the same is liable to be struck down as unconstitutional by the court. As per Article 43B of Constitution, it is the State’s endeavour to promote autonomous functioning and have democratic control and professional management of the societies. Hence, a constitutional duty is cast on the State to execute its duty in a manner known to law without any bias. However, in the present elections, all the above constitutional duties were given a go in an undemocratic way, the petitioners said.

Listing out various illegalities in the election process, the petitioners submitted that the Commission, being an independent body, should ensure free and fair elections that can be achieved only if the entire process is done in a transparent manner. This can be achieved only by uploading the members list, voters list, nominations, their scrutiny and results in the Commission’s website, the petitioners said.