The Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Tamil Nadu State Election Commission to declare the woman who secured eight out of 15 councillors’ votes as the successful candidate in the indirect elections held for the Chooleswaranpatti town panchayat chairman post in the Coimbatore district.

The first bench of Chief Justice MN Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the orders on disposing of a petition moved by J Vanitha, an independent councillor who claimed she had got eight out of 15 votes in the indirect elections.

The petitioner submitted that while she got eight votes, her opponent A Rahini, a DMK candidate got seven.

“As I got more votes, the returning officer should have declared me as the winner. However, the rival candidate’s father named Aruchamy entered the election spot and tore the ballot papers. He had snatched the election documents from the poll officers in front of the police. However, no action was taken against the Aruchamy. Instead of declaring me as a chairman, the RO had decided to conduct a fresh election,” the petitioner said.

Earlier, the bench wanted the CCTV footage to be furnished. When the SEC submitted the same, the bench scrutinised the same and confirmed that the petitioner was the successful candidate in the indirect elections.

“The SEC shall declare the results by announcing that the petitioner had won the indirect elections,” HC noted.

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