The Telangana High Court on the 7th of December, permitted the State Election Commission (SEC) to declare the election result of Neredmet division of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC.)
The Court ruled out its order of the 4th of December, regarding the distinguished marking.
On the 4th of December, the Telangana HC dismissed the issued circular and asked the SEC not to declare the result of any ward where ballot paper has distinguished marks.
It, however, directed the commission to go ahead with the counting of votes and permitted them to declare the result of those wards where subject ballot papers are less in number and cannot impact final results.
The distinguished marks in majority could impact the final results of the GHMC election results. The Court order said, If the number of ballot papers with ‘distinguish mark’ exceeds 100, the final result of that division should be kept pending.
After the Telangana HC’s direction, the SEC officials said the distinguished mark would not have any impact on the results as such marked ballots would be less in numbers.
the SEC can treat all the votes with different marks too as valid, saying that since the intention of voters is clear, the votes should be treated as valid.
The court dismissed the petition of BJP legal cell incharge Antony Reddy, who sought direction to SEC not to count ballots with marks other than ‘swastika’.
After the Court’s allowance, the SEC is likely to declare the result of the Neredmet division where Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) candidate was leading by 504 votes.
Stay tuned for further updates.
