YSRCP files SLP in Supreme Court on postal ballots

Vijayawada: The YSR Congress party filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court on Sunday challenging the Andhra Pradesh High Court decision which declined granting any relief in the petition pertaining to the new rules concerning counting of postal ballot votes in the State.

Senior advocate Mahfooz A Nazki filed the special leave petition in the court on behalf of the YSRCP.

It may be recalled that the Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court comprising Justice Kiranmayee Mandava and Justice Nyaypathy Vijay on Saturday declined to grant any relief in the petition filed by the YSR Congress Party challenging the new rules concerning counting of postal ballot votes in the State.

The Division Bench asked the YSRCP to file an election petition instead of pursuing remedy under writ jurisdiction. “The writ plea is disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to pursue remedies in a properly framed election petition,” the division bench said.

Earlier, the YSR Congress Party moved the High Court challenging the validity of relaxed norms to recognise the counting of postal ballots during the forthcoming counting on June 4.

The petition pointed out that the Election Commission of India relaxed the norms in the State. Specifically, the mandatory requirement of name and designation of the attesting officer to be mentioned in Form 13A as per the rules has been dispensed with and now the specimen signatures of all such officers has, instead, been called for.

The same has been done for the sole purpose of validating postal ballots that do not adhere to the mandatory requirement of law, the petitioner stated. Senior Counsel Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for the YSR Congress and argued that the poll body incorrectly did away with statutory norms.

Senior advocate Avinash Desai appearing for the ECI argued that the relaxed rules do not apply to all postal ballots.

Meanwhile, Supreme Court advocates Guntur Pramod and Raviteja Padiri filed caveat in the Supreme Court on behalf of senior TDP leader Velagapudi Ramakrishna.