Kochi : The High Court will keep the ballot box of uncounted votes relating to 2021 Assembly elections in Perinthalmanna constituency. The Court also directed to add Election Commission to the respondents list.Justice Badruddin handed the ruling on petition filed by Perinthalmanna constituency LDF candidate KPM Mustafa, challenging the disqualification of 348 uncounted special postal votes. The Perinthalmanna sub-collector submitted a report on the incident of the said Ballot box gone missing and recovered shortly after from another government office.
Backdrop : The boxes with contents relating to Perinthalmanna block panchayat election and that of the Aassembly election were stored in the strong room of Perinthalmanna sub-treasury. The Perinthalmanna Cooperative Asst. Registrar was the Election Officer assigned to Block Pancayat election in Perinthalmanna. Thus the speculation that, when Block Panchayat election boxes were transported to JR office in Malappuram, the Assembly Elections boxes too were tagged along.
In a search conducted yesterday by Perinthalmanna Sub-Collector Sreedhanya Suresh, the box was recovered from JR office and stored in the sub-collector's office Monday nigh. It was brought to High Court for submission Tuesday afternoon.
