Madras HC order on Sankarapuram prez post stayed by SC

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices B R Gavai and Suryakant said the case has to be heard in detail and so they were staying the order of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court declaring the election in favour of Devi, the Congress-backed candidate against AIADMK candidate Priyadarshini.

The Returning Officer (RO) in the election had first declared Devi as the winner in the poll held on December but the next morning another RO declaredPriyadarshini as the winner.

Devi had approached the High Court with an election petition and got a verdict in her favour. But the losing AIADMK approached the Supreme Court against the High Court order.

Appearing for Devi, senior counsel P Chidambaram argued that once the election result is declared and the candidate given the winner’s certificate, there can only be an election petition in the court.  The result once declared cannot be recalled, he contended.

Senior counsel C S Vaiydyanathan, appearing for Sivagangai Collector, submitted that a bunch of about 1,500 votes were not counted first before which the result was declared.  The RO was hence suspended and a new RO resumed the counting and declared the result after taking into account the unaccounted votes.