KOCHI: Expressing doubt over the procedure adopted in the recounting of votes polled in the election for the post of Chairman, college union of Sree Kerala Varma College, Thrissur, the Kerala High Court pointed out that four votes which were valid in the original counting were treated as invalid during the recounting. The court also expressed doubt over treating valid votes as invalid in the recounting.
At the first counting, there were only 23 invalid votes and in recounting the invalid votes were increased to 27. The bylaw for the election stated that every ballot paper rejected shall be endorsed by the returning officer and such papers shall be kept separately. The court found that it was not followed in this case and pointed out that there was no specific reason in the complaint filed by the SFI candidate seeking re-counting. The complaint only stated that since there is some confusion regarding the counting of votes there should be a recounting. Justice TR Ravi reserved for its order on the petition filed by Sreekuttan S, the KSU candidate seeking re-election.
The court also pointed out that the returning officer has not signed any of the papers related to counting produced before the court. The persons who were not on the list for the polling duty were also seen signed in the document. Why are people who are not on the list signed, asked the court.
The documents produced in the court reveal that the KSU candidate had secured 896 votes and the SFI candidate has garnered 895 votes. Then the SFI candidate requested a recounting and after that, it was found that the SFI candidate had secured 899 while 889 votes for KSU.
The court pointed out that four votes which were initially treated as valid were treated as invalid at the time of recounting. Since no endorsement has been made it is not even clear whether all the 23 votes which were initially found to be invalid were treated as invalid during the recounting also. another aspect change in the number of NOTA from 19 to 18 after recounting. However, since NOTA is treated as a valid vote against all candidates it cannot be said that there cannot be a difference in the number of votes in favor of NOTA on recounting.
The petitioner submitted that even though the principal had directed them to stop the recounting, the manager intervened and directed them to continue it. There has been extraneous intervention which has vitiated the entire election process. During the recounting invalid votes were included for recounting as valid votes which is against the bylaw of the university, Hence the results in favour of the SFI candidate are illegal and a re-election is required.
The court examined the papers relating to the original counting and recounting and the original tabulation sheets used for marking the votes during the election. The votes which were initially shown as NOTA have been reduced by one during the recounting.
The counsel for the petitioner said that a valid cannot be invalidated and an invalid vote cannot be validated under the guise of recounting. The counting is only to count the valid votes and it cannot include the votes which were already rejected as invalid.
One of the grounds raised is that invalid votes included in the recounting as valid votes. However, it would appear that votes which were treated as valid were declared invalid during the recounting. The counsel for the RO agreed that there has been no endorsement on the ballot paper regarding the rejection by the RO and ballot papers were also not kept separately. The reason stated for this is that the ballot paper was a consolidated one including all the posts and it was not possible to keep them separately.
The court said that the method followed is not permissible because of the bylaws which govern the elections. Even if the ballot papers were not kept separately that does not permit the returning officer to do away with the endorsement of the rejected votes in the case of any post. As per the bylaw, it's only after the separation of rejected votes the valid votes are counted and the votes polled by each candidate are ascertained. It follows that if a recounting is to be done it has to be done from out of the valid votes.
The vote tally in the counting
Gokul- 21
Sreekuttan (KSU)- 896
Manya- 25
Anirudhan KS(SFI)-895
NOTA- 19
Invalid-23
The vote tally in recounting
Gokul-21
Sreekuttan (KSU)-889
Manya-25
Anirudhan KS (SFI)- 899
NOTA-18
Invalid- 27