The Madras High Court has ordered notice on a public interest litigation petition by a city advocate seeking a direction to election authorities to dispose of his representation for adequate surveillance system in all polling booths in the coming Assembly elections.
A Division Bench, comprising Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and D. Hariparanthaman, posted the matter for January 24.
In his petition, S. Muthuraj of Chepauk stated that in his representation he had requested the authorities to install surveillance system in polling stations so that malpractices such as bogus voting, booth capturing and wrong management of electronic voting machines could be prevented.
It was the duty of the Chief Election Commissioner and the Chief Electoral Officer to conduct the Assembly elections in a transparent manner. They should be held fairly and properly so as to inspire confidence in the electorate.
The authorities should install monitoring mechanism in polling booths for the elections.
This would also enable officials to prove that polling in every booth was free and fair.
He had sent a representation dated December 27 containing the various aspects and stressing that the authorities should conduct the Assembly elections in a fair and democratic manner, but there was no response.
Hence, the present writ petition.
