: Asserting that the court does not believe that the demonetisation process has any impact on the election process, the First Bench of the Madras High Court said, “If at all, it reduces the play of money.”
The Bench comprising Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan made the observations while dismissing a miscellaneous petition moved by A.A. Sadik Ali, President of Forum for Election Integrity, seeking to postpone the elections to the Aravakurichi and Thanjavur Assembly constituencies scheduled on November 19 to December 31 in view of demonetisation of high value currencies.
Mr. Sadik Ali alleged that the candidates of the AIADMK and the DMK contesting from the two constituencies had access to robust finance, and hence, there were chances of distribution of money to voters in the denomination of Rs. 500 and 1,000 to the tune of Rs. 50 crores.
“Since an individual voter can exchange currencies worth Rs. 4,000 per day, the black money which would be distributed to them can be easily accounted for,” the petitioner claimed.
Alleging that the election would pave way for large-scale conversion of black money, the petitioner said that unless the election is postponed till December 31, which is the last day to exchange the demonetised currencies, the conversion of such unaccounted money cannot be stopped.
