The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to issue a revised set of instructions to provide for acknowledgement by returning officers of election to local bodies when written objections are lodged at the time of scrutiny of nomination papers.
A division bench of Justices K. K. Sasidharan and G. R. Swaminathan observed that objections could be raised orally. However, when an objection was lodged in writing, a proper acknowledgement must be issued in writing. The court observed that if no acknowledgement in writing was issued by the returning officer then there would be no means to verify the objection at a later stage. It directed the SEC to issue instructions before notification of the next local body elections.
The court had earlier directed the SEC to update its website with details of persons who had been disqualified from participating in electoral contests on account of non-furnishing of election expenditure account.
Petitioner A. Kannan’s wife K. Muthu Sumathi had filed nomination papers for contesting the local body election for the post of ward councillor in Madurai Corporation in 2016. When scrutiny of nominations was taken up, the petitioner had raised objection that a rival candidate had not filed the election expenditure account for 2011 in the prescribed format and within the stipulated time limit. The petitioner contended that the RO had not acknowledged the objections lodged in writing.
