HC pulls up poll officer; sets aside panchayat chief election

Pulling up an election officer for negligence and carelessness, the Madras High Court today set aside the election of a panchayat president in Ramanathapuram district and declared his main rival elected to the post.
Allowing a petition by rival candidate Vahitha against Majitha Begum, who was elected as president, Justice K K Sasidharan said the petitioner had been dragged to court due to mistakes of officials though she had polled two votes more.
The judge said the petitioner had proved her contention that the election officer declared votes polled in her favour as invalid without rhyme or reason, resulting in Begum being elected in October 2011.

He declared Vahitha as elected chairman and directed the election officer to send the relevant statutory form to the Ramanathapuram district collector and Election Commission.
The State Election commission should issue a public notification of the petitioner being elected in three days.
Of 87 invalid votes which were taken out from a sealed cover in the court, it was found that 12 were actually valid and had been in fact cast in favour of the petitioner, who was earlier declared to have lost by 10 votes.
Now the petitioner had won the election by two votes, the judge said.
The election officer admitted in court that the valid votes had been declared as invalid, but blamed his subordinates for the mistake.