Give details of EVM requirement for local body polls:HC to SEC

Chennai, Sep 8 (PTI) Stating that it is keen to ensurefree and fair civic polls in Tamil Nadu, Madras High Courttoday directed State Election Commission to give it details ofthe requirement of Electronic Voting Machines for local bodypolls in the state, except in panchayats, by tomorrow. A division bench, comprising Justices Huluvadi G Rameshand K Ravichandrabaabu, said the Commission must give detailsof reserved segments and proposed rotation of reservedsegments, mandatory once in 10 years, by Friday afternoon. "We are keen to ensure free and fair civic polls inTamil Nadu," the judges said. The bench stated this when a batch of petitions by DMKseeking four reliefs – reservation/rotation of reservedconstituencies, use of EVMs in all civic segments, deploymentof central government or public sector staff for poll duty andhosting candidate information on the official website of StateElection Commission – came up for hearing. Advocate General of Tamil Nadu R Muthukumaraswamy saiduse of EVMs could not be insisted on unless rules provided forit and there was no rule requiring deployment of EVMs inpanchayats. Stating that it is a must to conduct local body polls byOctober 24, 2016, he said under no circumstances could theelections be postponed as per the Panchayat Raj Act. He said the term of the present local bodies cannot beextended beyond October 24 and a poll notification for themwould have to be issued 30 days before that date. The AG referred to delimitation of civic bodies, sayingthe Supreme Court had held it cannot be called into question. Earlier, DMK’s senior counsel R Shanmugasundaram arguedthat the number of EVMs required for Tamil Nadu would not bein the region of four to five lakh, as the state governmenthad decided not to hold direct elections to civic chief posts. He said if representation is made to Election Commission,EVMs lying idle in other states would be used in Tamil Nadu. Another senior counsel N R Elango expressed fear that SECmight not plan on a fair poll, evident from the fact that itscounter affidavit spoke of parties and their past stands. B Kumar, SEC’s senior counsel, said 66,500 EVMs are readyand added it will be a logistical nightmare to bring EVMs fromother states to Tamil Nadu. Voters in urban local bodies needcast only one vote and those in rural local bodies, four,needing four times the number of EVMs planned to be put in useas of now, he said. Kumar, however, said Kanyakumari district had been chosenfor full EVM use on an experimental basis Justice Ramesh asked SEC to demonstrate its fairness andsaid it should do whatever it can – such as using EVMs andreserving/rotating reserved seats – to ensure fair polling. Explaining the positives of using EVMs, he said theywould help expedite counting and rule out manual/human errors. "You are an independent agency.. do what best you can toprovide a free and fair election," he said. PTI COR APRRGDK