File election petition: HC

Madurai

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday continued to hear a slew of petitions alleging irregularities in the conduct of the rural local body polls.

In most of the cases, a Division Bench of Justices M. Duraiswamy and T. Ravindran directed the petitioners to file an Election Petition under Section 258 of the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act, 1994 before the district court concerned for grievance redressal.

Meanwhile, Additional Advocate General K. Chellapandian informed the court that the allegation that a woman candidate being declared elected in Ramanathapuram district and not given the certificate was not true. Her name was wrongly displayed as elected in the official website which was later changed, he said.

In one of the petitions filed before the court, a petitioner, S. Ananth from Pattukottai in Thanjavur district said that he was to contest the post of councillor for Madurapasaniyapuram Panchayat. He alleged that his nomination paper was withdrawn without his knowledge by forgery.

The court directed the State to look into the allegation and pass appropriate orders. The court also took serious view of the fact that the State was yet to submit the CCTV footages of the counting process from the 12 districts, under the jurisdiction of the High Court Bench, that went to the polls.