Madras HC orders recounting of postal votes in Radhapuram constituency

The Madras high court on Thursday (October 3) ordered for recounting of postal votes, and a few votes recorded in the EVMs for Radhapuram Assembly constituency election today (October 4) at 11.30 am.

The matter came to hearing under the single judge, G Jayachandran of the Madras high court. The court in an order to the Election Commission of India said to recount postal votes and the votes recorded in the EVMs which were taken up for counting during 19th, 20th, 21st rounds.

The election for this constituency took place on May 2016, where the contesting DMK candidate Appavu lost with a margin of 49 votes to the winning AIADMK candidate I S Inbadurai.

It is to be noted that in the 2016 Assembly election, Inbadurai had secured 69,590 votes while Appavu secured 69,541 votes.

Later, DMK’s Appavu filed a petition and alleged that there are discrepancies in the counting process, and around 200 postal votes have not been counted. Pointing out this, he sought court’s order to initiate recounting of votes.

Similarly, Inbadurai sought a stay order of the HC’s order to recount the votes in the Supreme Court but when the matter came to hearing on Thursday (October 3), Justice Jayachandran dismissed the plea.

Senior advocate appearing for Inbadurai sought a stay order for three weeks for recounting of votes which was objected by TR Rajagopalan, who appeared for DMK’s Appavu.

Inbadurai’s counsel stated that, “Only an interim order was passed in this matter. So we appealed in the Supreme Court seeking a stay for three weeks to recount the votes. Since the Madras HC has passed an interim order in this matter, apex court could give an interim stay for the recounting.”

He further stated that if the recounting of votes is to take place, then the plea filed in the Supreme Court will not be considered.