KOCHI: Kerala High Court on Tuesday observed that the missing ballot box of the 2021 assembly election in the Perinthalmanna constituency and its recovery later from another government office are serious matters. The sub-collector, Perinthalmanna, who was the returning officer of the Perinthalmanna constituency, produced the ballot box and other documents before the court on Tuesday. Following this, Justice A Badharudeen ordered to keep the materials in the safe custody of the High Court registrar.
When the case came up for hearing, the counsel for the petitioner submitted that the missing ballot box which was in the custody of the returning officer would seriously affect the case. The victory margin was only 38 votes. “If the box is found missing or misplaced or kept in a place without safe custody, it is a serious matter,” the court orally observed.
The returning officer also produced the entire video footage in connection with the counting of votes and the re-counting of postal ballots. The entire video footage in connection with the polling/casting of votes by the Absentee Voters was also produced.
IUML candidate Najeeb Kanthapuram had won the elections with a slender margin of 38 votes and his opponent KPM Mustafa (LDF independent) challenged his victory through an election petition.
Musthafa challenged the election mainly on the ground that the 348 postal ballots of absentee voters in the category of absentee voters in the category of senior citizens, absentee voters belonging to PWD category and absentee voters belonging to the Covid category were improperly rejected. It had materially affected the result of the election so far as the UDF candidate was concerned, as the LDF candidate would have bagged not less than 300 votes, had the postal ballots not been improperly rejected. Hence, the petitioner sought to set aside the election.
Show cause notices served on four officials
Malappuram: District Collector V R Premkumar has served show-cause notices on two officials each of the Perinthalmanna sub-treasury and Malappuram cooperative joint registrar office in connection with the ballot box missing incident. The officials have been asked to explain within seven days the circumstances that led to the missing of the box from the Perinthalmanna sub-treasury. A preliminary investigation had revealed a serious lapse on the part of the officials.