In Coimbatore, a petition to halt the Lok Sabha constituency election results, citing missing voter names, was dismissed by the court. The complaint was originally filed after one lakh voters were allegedly omitted.
Coimbatore: In a significant development, the Chennai High Court has dismissed a petition seeking to halt the declaration of election results in the Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency. The petition was raised following accusations by Tamil Nadu BJP leader Annamalai that one lakh voter names were missing from the electoral rolls.
The issue first came to light when Sudanthira Kannan, hailing from Nanjunadapuram in Coimbatore district and currently working in Australia, filed a petition. Kannan alleged that both his and his wife's names were omitted from the voter list, despite having voted in the 2019 Lok Sabha and the 2021 Assembly elections. He noted that while the names of thousands of voters from his area were also missing, their daughter's name remained on the list.
Further compounding the issue, despite emails to the Election Commission to reinstate these voters and allow their participation, no actions were taken, prompting the petition to halt the election results until the matter was resolved.
The case was speedily brought before Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Sathya Narayan Prasad, who then directed for the case to be examined on an urgent basis. The case proceeded under the scrutiny of Justice G. Chandrasekaran and was heard on April 30, 2024.
During the court proceedings, election commission lawyer Niranjan presented evidence showing deadlines for claims and objections regarding voter list entries were met, and questioned why no objections were raised when the draft voter list was published.
Ultimately, the petition was dismissed by the court, emphasizing the necessity for the petitioner to have raised objections during the draft voter list's release phase.
The issue first came to light when Sudanthira Kannan, hailing from Nanjunadapuram in Coimbatore district and currently working in Australia, filed a petition. Kannan alleged that both his and his wife's names were omitted from the voter list, despite having voted in the 2019 Lok Sabha and the 2021 Assembly elections. He noted that while the names of thousands of voters from his area were also missing, their daughter's name remained on the list.
Further compounding the issue, despite emails to the Election Commission to reinstate these voters and allow their participation, no actions were taken, prompting the petition to halt the election results until the matter was resolved.
The case was speedily brought before Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Sathya Narayan Prasad, who then directed for the case to be examined on an urgent basis. The case proceeded under the scrutiny of Justice G. Chandrasekaran and was heard on April 30, 2024.
During the court proceedings, election commission lawyer Niranjan presented evidence showing deadlines for claims and objections regarding voter list entries were met, and questioned why no objections were raised when the draft voter list was published.
Ultimately, the petition was dismissed by the court, emphasizing the necessity for the petitioner to have raised objections during the draft voter list's release phase.