HC flags possible 'mischief' in panchayat vote count; seeks affidavit on ballot custody

Flagging possible “mischief” in panchayat vote count, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has called for an affidavit on identifying the official who had custody of the ballot papers. The direction came after the Bench noted that most of the votes declared invalid were in favour a particular symbol.

The case has its genesis in election to the sarpanch’s post in Panje Ke Uttar gram panchayat in Guruharsahai tehsil of Ferozepur district in October last year. The appellant, Ramesh Kumar, was initially declared returned candidate with 72 votes’ winning margin following which an election petition was filed seeking recount.

The stand of Ramesh Kumar’s counsel Prateek Gupta has all along been that the recount was ordered in a “manner unknown to law and on the basis of vague pleas made in the petition without being supported by material facts and evidence”.

He added that Kumar’s election was set aside only on the basis recount of votes, which was liable to be ignored and rejected. Gupta in written statement further contended that the tampering of votes, validly polled in Kumar’s favour in the election, was required to be independently examined as the polling officials’ consistent evidence was the elections were conducted in a fair and transparent manner.

Taking up an appeal filed in the matter, Justice Pankaj Jain asserted the ballot papers polled were produced before the court in compliance with an earlier order and opened in the court. “The staff accompanying the ballot box was directed to separate the cancelled ballot papers booth wise. The same have been segregated,” the Bench observed.

Justice Jain took note of the fact that in all 209 votes were rejected, including 149 polled in favour of symbol bucket (assigned to Kumar), followed by 30 to Tractor, nine to both bucket and tractor, and 21 to neither of the two.

“Evidently, the cancelled ballot papers are double stamped. However, it can also be seen that majority of the cancelled ballot papers show that one of the stamp is in favour of ‘bucket’. Thus, the possibility of mischief with votes polled in favour of bucket cannot be ruled out. State is directed to file affidavit of the official in whose custody the ballot papers were prior to August 1,” the Bench added.