Chennai: The Chief Bench of the Madras High Court has declined to issue a directive for the conduct of a special election to accommodate leftout voters in the Coimbatore Parliamentary constituency. The court has also decided to withhold the election results until further notice.
The decision came following a petition filed by R Suthanthira Kannan, a Coimbatore-native doctor currently residing in Australia. Kannan, along with his wife, returned to Coimbatore on polling day to cast their votes but discovered that their names had been removed from the voters’ list, rendering them unable to vote.
Allegations surfaced that many voters’ names were omitted from the voters’ list in the Coimbatore constituency. Kannan sought intervention from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct a special election for the affected voters and to withhold the election results until this was resolved.
In response, the standing counsel for the ECI, Niranjan Rajagopal, pointed out that the final voters’ list had been published in January, and copies were distributed to all eligible voters. He highlighted that Kannan had not raised any objections or complaints with the ECI regarding his voter status.
Furthermore, it was revealed that Kannan’s name had been removed from the voters’ list since the 2021 election due to his non-regular residency in Coimbatore and his status as a resident of Australia.
After considering the submissions, the bench refused to issue any directives for a special election and subsequently dismissed the petition.