New Delhi, February 22
In an embarrassment to the Election Commission (EC) on the issue of
pre-poning the date for counting of votes in Haryana, the Supreme Court today reversed the poll panel’s order and directed that the counting be done on February 27 as per the original election schedule. It said there was no “pressing necessity” for advancing it to February 23.
Taking a note of Section 54-A of the Conduct of Election Rules (CER) under which postal ballots have to be sent to the returning officers for counting before other votes and EC counsel S.K Mahendiratta’s statement that the date had been
pre-poned to
February 23 only as a “matter of convenience”, the court ordered the poll panel to stick to its original schedule.
“In view of the EC stand and keeping in view the languate of Section 54-A of the CER, we direct that the counting shall take place only on February 27 and not on February 23.” said a Bench of Chief Justice R.C Lahoti, Mr Justice D.M Dharmadhikari and Mr Justice P.K Balasubramanyan.
However, the court made it clear that its direction “shall not be construed” as adjudication on the EC’s power to
pre-pone the counting dates. “We leave this decision to the Election Commission,” the Bench observed, making it further clear that today’s order would not be treated as a precedent in any such case in future.
“The EC is not very serious in insisting on pressing the counting date and is not opposed to the idea of the counting taking place on February 27,” the court said.
The direction came on two writ petitions by INLD candidates Zile Singh and Raj Singh, who had challenged the EC
decision on the ground that it violated the election rules with regard to counting of postal ballots.
On a specific query by the court regarding how many postal ballots had been issued in Haryana, EC counsel said the number was little less than 77,000.
When the court asked whether there was any pressing need to
pre-pone the counting date, the EC counsel said the decision had been taken because the poll panel wanted to release the para-military forces guarding the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), of their duty and restore the school buildings where the machines were kept, to the state government as early as possible.
But the court was not impressed with Mahendiratta’s explanation,
saying if the security forces and school buildings were engaged for all these days, what difference it would have made in three more days.
Earlier, senior advocate Shanit Bhushan, appearing for the INLD candidates, contended that the votes would continue to be polled through postal ballots till February 27 and counting before the completion of polling would be entirely in violation of the election rules.
He also expressed apprehension that in case of low margin of difference between two top candidates, there was every
likelihood of “purchasing” of the postal votes, casting of which will continue till 8 a.m. on February 27.
The Election Commission today issued a fresh set of instructions to the Returning Officers for counting of votes for the 90 Assembly constituencies in Haryana from 8 a.m on February 27, instead of February 23, in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling in this regard today.
The EC sources said that fresh instructions were issued to the Chief Electoral Officer soon after the Apex court ruling.
Around 55 percent of 12.73 millions voters had exercised their right in the February 3 Assembly polls for which 983 candidates, including 60 women, are contesting.
INLD, which had opposed the
pre-poning of the counting dates by the EC, had moved the apex court and sought its intervention on the ground that the ballots of service voters would reach, as the
original schedule, till 0800 hrs on February 27.
