Madras High Court Hears Petition by Former AIADMK MLA Over Discrepancies in T Nagar Electoral Rolls
Chennai, Oct 24 (TheTrendingPeople.com): The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday informed the Madras High Court that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Tamil Nadu’s electoral rolls will commence within a week. The announcement came during the hearing of a petition filed by former AIADMK MLA B Sathyanarayanan, who sought a transparent re-verification of 229 polling booths in the T Nagar constituency.
ECI Submits Timeline to Court
The assurance was made before a bench comprising Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan. Representing the ECI, Standing Counsel Niranjan Rajagopal said the upcoming revision would effectively address the petitioner’s concerns. Following the submission, the court adjourned the case for a week.
Sathyanarayanan, who contested the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections from T Nagar, alleged large-scale discrepancies in the voter list, claiming his defeat by a narrow margin of 137 votes was due to mass deletions of genuine voters.
Allegations of Electoral Irregularities
In his petition, the former MLA stated that personal verification of 100 out of 229 polling booths revealed duplicate entries, inclusion of non-resident and deceased voters, and other inconsistencies. Despite submitting his findings, Sathyanarayanan alleged that the ECI had not taken corrective action.
He further claimed that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) had prepared reports without actual field visits, amounting to a dereliction of duty. Such lapses, he argued, compromise the integrity of the electoral process and violate the Representation of the People Act, 1950, as well as the right to vote under Article 326 of the Constitution.
The petitioner urged the court to direct the ECI to conduct a full-scale re-verification, ensuring the removal of wrongful inclusions and deletions in the T Nagar voter list and restoring public confidence in the democratic process.