Wondering why the SEC supplied its voting staff with stamp sticks that have distinctive markings on them instead of the normal cross-shaped arrow marking, Judge A Abhishek Reddy suspended the letter asking the counting staff to consider valid. even those votes that have marks other than the normal ones. in them.
The court sought SEC and state accountants within three days and published the case through Dec. 7.
The judge gave this interim address while listening to an urgent petition filed by attorneys K Anthony Reddy and K Surender, who challenged the SEC letter and expressed various apprehensions about this midnight letter. The regular ballot will have a cross-shaped arrow mark that looks like a swastika symbol.
Lead counsel G Vidya Sagar appeared before the SEC and said the letter was merely a clarifying note issued to counting staff that some of the polling stations inadvertently received stamps with marks other than the normal swastika.
“We rectified the error later, but by then some voters had already exercised their right to vote. We have decided to treat all those votes as valid, since it was an inadvertent error that was later rectified,” said the SEC attorney.
The judge asked the SEC why this business of bringing in distinguished brand stamps was attempted in the first place. The judge ordered the SEC to keep the two sets of ballots separate.
“You can continue to count but maintain a separate account of those votes with a distinguished note. If the margin between the first and second candidate is too large, well beyond these disputed votes, the result can be declared. But if the difference is less that the number of votes in dispute, the votes in dispute cannot be taken into account and the result cannot be declared, ”Judge Abhishek said.
.
