The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed a public interest litigation petition filed by an independent candidate seeking a direction to Election Commission of India to desist from counting votes polled in Madurai Lok Sabha constituency and instead order a fresh poll due to the controversy over a Tahsildar having entered a room adjacent to the EVM storage room.
Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad rejected the petition filed by S. Pasumpon Pandiyan after recording ECI counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan’s submission that the counting would take place on May 23 under the supervision of an Additional District Magistrate (an official in the rank of District Revenue Officer) from another State.
In the meantime, the judges adjourned further hearing on another PIL petition filed on the issue, by CPI (M) candidate Su. Venkatesan, to June 6 for further hearing. They also allowed a petition filed by M. Rajasekaran, Personal Assistant (General) to the Madurai Collector as one of the respondents to this PIL petition.
In his petition to implead, Mr. Rajasekaran stated that he had nothing to do with the entry of the Tahsildar into the document storage room next to the EVM strong room situated on Government Medical College Hospital in Madurai and yet his name had been unnecessarily dragged into the issue.
He brought it to the notice of the court that a Personal Assistant (Election) had been appointed to assist the Collector on election issues and that there has been a confusion over the designation. Stating that his career would be affected if any disciplinary action was initiated against him on the basis of a wrogn presumption, he urged the court to implead him as a party.