The Election Commission of India (EC) on Wednesday informed the Madras High Court that it had uploaded on the website www.elections.tn.gov.in an updated list of names, designations, mobile phone numbers, landline numbers and e-mail IDs of Returning Officers (ROs) and Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) of as many as 230 out of 234 Assembly constituencies in the State.
Appearing before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, ECI counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan said the details of officials in charge of three more constituencies would be uploaded on Wednesday, while it would take some time to upload the information pertaining to Uthiramerur constituency.
He said the Returning Officer of Uthiramerur was yet to take charge, and hence, there would be some delay in uploading those details. After recording his submissions, the Division Bench ordered that the remaining details be uploaded by the end of the week, and disposed of a writ petition filed by DMK Organising Secretary R.S. Bharathi.
According to senior counsel R. Viduthalai, representing the writ petitioner, the ECI issued a notification on January 22 with respect to the appointment of District Election Officers, ROs and AROs. Accordingly, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) also uploaded on his official website the names of the ROs and AROs. But subsequently, the State government transferred many officers.
Pointing out that two Government Orders were issued on February 3 and 11 with respect to mass transfer of officials in the rank of District Revenue Officers (DROs) and others, the counsel said it had led to a mismatch in the contact details of ROs and AROs as available in the CEO’s website. He contended that such transfers vitiated the sanctity of the entire electoral process.