The name of a person, who was convicted for election malpractice, has been removed from electoral rolls.
A writ petition was filed in the Madras High Court by M. Loganathan of Coimbatore seeking a direction to authorities to consider his representation and take action against the convicted person.
The petitioner submitted that during the by-elections in Thondamuthur Assembly constituency in 2009, Krishnamurthy of the DMK was found distributing bribe. He was later convicted and sentenced to pay fine of Rs.2000. He paid the fine.
Mr. Loganathan said that a person convicted under section 171-E IPC (offence relating to elections – punishment for bribery) should be disqualified from voting for six years.
Despite his representation to the authorities, Krishnamurthy's name was in the electoral rolls published in January, in Kunnam Assembly constituency in Perambalur district.
The High Court directed the petitioner to file a fresh representation with the Chief Electoral Officer, Tamil Nadu, which should be considered by the authorities after giving an opportunity to Krishnamurthy and appropriate orders passed.
In response to a letter by petitioner's counsel M. Christopher, the election authorities said that following the petitioner's representation, the District Election Officer (DEO) of Perambalur had reported that the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) and RDO, Perambalur, in her proceedings had passed orders debarring M. Krishnamurthy from voting for six years from August 20 last year though his name found place in the electoral rolls of Kunnam Assembly constituency.
A copy of the proceedings had been sent to all DEOs, EROs and Returning Officers in the State so as to prevent him from voting.
The name of Krishnamurthy was struck off in the marked copy of the electoral rolls sent to the polling stations of the Kunnam constituency for the Assembly elections held on April 13.
