- Madras High Court to decide on Stalin's plea for 100% VVPAT counting on Sept 3
- Stalin lost Kolathur seat to VS Babu by 8,795 votes in recent state elections
- Stalin requested EVM verification citing delays and technical issues post-election
The Madras High Court is set to pronounce its order on September 3 on a plea by former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin seeking 100 per cent counting of VVPAT slips in the Kolathur assembly constituency, where he suffered a defeat to TVK's VS Babu in the state elections earlier this year. Stalin has also sought the invalidation of Babu's election and a declaration that he be elected from the constituency.
Babu defeated Stalin by 8,795 votes, polling 82,997 votes against Stalin's 74,202. Stalin, who had won Kolathur in three successive elections since the constituency was formed in 2011, finished second this time.
The dispute centres on the post-election verification of EVMs. After the results were declared on May 4, Stalin applied on May 7 for verification of 14 EVM sets, 5 per cent of the 286 sets used in the constituency.
However, the verification exercise began only on July 29 and was completed on August 5. Stalin has argued that the delay by the Election Commission affected his ability to pursue his legal remedy within the prescribed period for challenging an election.
The verification exercise also threw up a number of technical and procedural issues, according to Stalin's petition. These included a VVPAT unit stopping with an error message during a mock poll, a Control Unit allegedly failing to detect a Ballot Unit carrying Stalin's name, and incomplete address tags on some EVM components. Stalin's side has cited these discrepancies while seeking verification of all EVMs and counting of 100 per cent of the VVPAT slips.
The Election Commission, however, has challenged the maintainability of Stalin's writ petition. Its argument is that an election result can be questioned only through an election petition under the Representation of the People Act, and that Stalin ought to have followed that route within the prescribed time.
Stalin's side has countered that he had made his application for EVM verification within the permitted period, but the verification itself was taken up only later because of a delay by the election authorities. His counsel has argued that he should not lose his legal remedy because of a delay over which he had no control.
The High Court had reserved its orders after hearing arguments from both sides on August 31.
