The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday declined to interfere with the decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to postpone the counting of votes of the elections held to the Legislative Council from two graduates’ and two teachers’ constituencies to November 10.
Observing that the ECI has been vested with the powers to decide on election schedules, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty disposed of the the petition filed by the News India Voters’ Forum, Bengaluru.
No prejudice has been caused to any of the candidates owing to postponing of the counting to November 10 instead of the original schedule of November 2, the Bench said, while accepting the ECI’s statement of taking sufficient security measures to safeguard the ballot boxes till the counting of votes.
The petitioner had claimed that the ECI had no powers to alter the date as such a power was vested only with the Returning Officer besides complaining that no proper security arrangement was put in place to protect the ballot boxes.
