“The polling has already been conducted. The final list was confirmed in January 2024, with a prior provisional list. The petitioner did not challenge these lists earlier, thus the court cannot intervene at this stage,” stated the justices. Suthanthira Kannan, a doctor residing in Australia, filed the plea
Coimbatore: On Tuesday, the Madras High Court dismissed a petition that sought directives for the Election Commission to conduct special polling for individuals omitted from the voter's list in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha Elections. The bench, comprising Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice G Chandrasekharan, observed that the final voter's list was already published in January, following the release of a provisional list earlier. The court indicated it was not in a position to pass any such orders post-polling without prior objections to these lists.
“The polling has already been conducted. The final list was confirmed in January 2024, with a prior provisional list. The petitioner did not challenge these lists earlier, thus the court cannot intervene at this stage,” stated the justices. Suthanthira Kannan, a doctor residing in Australia, filed the plea after discovering he and his wife's names were missing from the list when he returned to Coimbatore to vote. Despite his name being on the voter's lists in 2019 and 2021, it was absent in the current list, leading to his claim of arbitrary and inefficient management in the voter's list preparation.
Kannan argued that this omission infringed on his fundamental rights under Article 19 of the Constitution and violated principles of natural justice according to the Representation of Peoples Act, which mandates a hearing before removal from the list. He urged the court to authorize a special polling station and to pause vote counting and result announcements until this issue was addressed. However, the advocate representing the Election Commission, Niranjan Rajagopal, countered by highlighting Kannan's non-residency in the constituency and mentioned that Kannan's name had been removed during the 2021 Assembly Elections itself.
Given these circumstances, the court concluded there was no basis for the demanded reliefs and subsequently dismissed the petition.
“The polling has already been conducted. The final list was confirmed in January 2024, with a prior provisional list. The petitioner did not challenge these lists earlier, thus the court cannot intervene at this stage,” stated the justices. Suthanthira Kannan, a doctor residing in Australia, filed the plea after discovering he and his wife's names were missing from the list when he returned to Coimbatore to vote. Despite his name being on the voter's lists in 2019 and 2021, it was absent in the current list, leading to his claim of arbitrary and inefficient management in the voter's list preparation.
Kannan argued that this omission infringed on his fundamental rights under Article 19 of the Constitution and violated principles of natural justice according to the Representation of Peoples Act, which mandates a hearing before removal from the list. He urged the court to authorize a special polling station and to pause vote counting and result announcements until this issue was addressed. However, the advocate representing the Election Commission, Niranjan Rajagopal, countered by highlighting Kannan's non-residency in the constituency and mentioned that Kannan's name had been removed during the 2021 Assembly Elections itself.
Given these circumstances, the court concluded there was no basis for the demanded reliefs and subsequently dismissed the petition.