RO admits to tampering with Tamil Nadu civic poll results

The Returning Officer (RO) attached to T Kallupatti panchayat in Madurai district on Monday admitted he had changed the civic poll result for Ward 10 there in favour of the DMK candidate due to the pressure exerted by the local ruling party functionaries.

The RO made the admission when a PIL petition from R Palaniselvi (40), an independent candidate, challenging the declaration of the RO made on February 22 came up for further hearing before the first bench of Chief Justice M N Bhandari and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy, today.

According to the petitioner Palaniselvi, she and her opponent R Subbulakshmi of the DMK had secured an equal number of votes in the elections held during the election held on February 19.

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Hence, a lot was conducted to decide the issue, which was videographed.

Though the lot went in her favour, the election officer declared Subbulakshmi as elected. Hence, the present petition to quash the declaration made by the election officer on February 22 as illegal and consequently to declare her as the successful candidate.

When the matter came up for hearing on the last occasion, the bench called for the video clippings of the conduct of the lot. Accordingly, the video clippings were produced and the bench found that the election officer had tampered with the result.

When the matter came up today, the election officer admitted that he had tampered with the election result due to the pressure given by the local DMK functionaries.

The counsel representing the State Election Commission told the bench the official concerned was suspended from service and it was Palanisevi who has been announced as the successful candidate. After directing the election officer to file an affidavit to that effect, the bench posted the matter after 10 days for passing final orders.

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