The Telangana Superior Court on Monday gave a green signal to the State Elections Commission (SEC) to declare the election result of the Neredmet division of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). The court ruled that the SEC can also treat all votes with different markings as valid, and said that since the voters’ intent is clear, the votes should be treated as valid.
The court rejected the request of the head of the legal cell of the BJP, Antony Reddy, who requested instructions from the SEC not to count the ballots with marks other than the ‘swastika’.
The SEC can now declare the result in the Neredmet split where Telangana candidate Rashtra Samithi (TRS) led by 504 votes. Neredmet’s result was withheld on Friday when the results of 149 divisions were announced.
Since there was a dispute over 544 votes with different brands, the SEC withheld the results. The Superior Court had ordered the SEC on Friday that if the number of votes with different marks exceeds the majority, the result must be withheld.
It was on December 3 that the SEC had issued a circular declaring that ballot papers with a distinctive mark rather than an arrow cross (swastika) were valid in GHMC elections.
As voting officials at some polling stations had provided a distinctive mark rather than a cross-shaped arrow mark to mark on the ballot for voters to cast their vote, the SEC said that all of those votes should be considered valid. .
However, in a house motion filed by the BJP on Friday, the High Court suspended the circular. He had directed that ballots with marks other than the cross arrow be dealt with separately and if the number of such votes is not greater than the majority, the SEC can declare results, but if the number is greater than the majority, the results will be subject to the final orders of the court in the matter.
.
