: The Tamil Nadu State Election Commission on Tuesday informed the Madras High Court that there is no statutory provision available to call for the medical reports of candidates contesting in the local body elections.
The Commission made the submission on a plea moved by S.V. Subbaiah, a resident of Pollachi, Coimbatore district, seeking a direction to the State Election Commission to call for medical reports of candidates contesting local body polls to enable voters to know their health status.
Denying the contention, the counsel for the petitioner submitted that even though there is no such provision available to call for details of candidates’ wealth and criminal antecedents, the Commission had made furnishing such information mandatory by passing appropriate orders, and the same procedure might be followed to call for medical reports.
Recording the submission, Justice N. Kirubakaran directed the State government to file an affidavit submitting its views on the issue.
On November 18, the judge suo motu impleaded the Central government and the Election Commission of India (EC) to the plea, noting that the issue could be confined to local body polls alone as it was essential in the case of legislative assembly and Parliamentary elections as well.
According to the petitioner, an elected representative, who is the voice of a voter, may become bedridden after polls owing to some chronic illness and this could prevent the person from attending sittings of the forum for the rest of the tenure.
Noting that under such circumstances the voter will be a loser, he said, “Therefore, a responsibility is cast on the voter to take an informed decision to elect a hale and healthy candidate as his representative to avoid or at least minimise the risk of choosing someone who is more unlikely to discharge his duty owing to sickness or physical incapacitation.”
