HC Places Plea Seeking Exclusion of Madurai Medical College as Election Centre before Chief Justice Bench

Madurai: The plea seeking the exclusion of Madurai Medical College as a counting centre for the upcoming Lok Sabha and future elections will now be heard by the Madras High Court bench comprising the Chief Justice.

While considering the plea, the Madurai bench of the High Court on Monday issued directions to the Registry to place the plea filed by the Students Council of the medical college before the Chief Justice.

This comes after the HC Division bench comprising Justices D. Krishnakumar and R. Vijayakumar took note of a notification issued by the High Court stating that the matters concerning the elections should be placed before the Principal seat in Chennai.

Also Read: Students Urge HC to Exclude Madurai Medical College as Counting Centre for Upcoming Elections, ECI asked to Respond

As per the latest media report by The Hindu, taking note of the HC notification, the bench issued directions to its Registry to place the matter before the Chief Justice for appropriate orders.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by the Students Council of Madurai Medical College seeking a direction to the authorities not to include the institute as a counting centre for the upcoming General Elections and future elections. 

Earlier, while considering the matter, the HC bench had sought to know the stand of the Election Commission of India (ECI) in this regard. ECI had been directed by the HC bench of Justices D. Krishnakumar and R. Vijayakumar to file a counter affidavit to the PIL.

Filing the plea, the students submitted that the Government Medical College was attached to the Government Rajaji Hospital and if the college got listed as a counting centre, it would go under the control of the authorities.

They argued that civil works would be carried out on the premises and temporary and new structures would be put up to provide space for counting rooms and strong rooms for storing the Electronic Voting Machines.

Further, the students contended that if the medical college got selected as a counting centre, it would ultimately affect the academic activities of the medical college. They also argued that the medical college students would also get affected as they would not have any access to the college building.

The plea referred to the past events when theory and practical classes had to be cancelled. Filing the plea, the students also contended that cancellation of the classes would impact the academic excellence of the students adversely. It will ultimately result in a situation where the patients would also be subjected to innecessary hardship as the laboratieies were functioning on the Madurai Medical College campus. Therefore, they argued that an alternative centre should be selected to ensure smooth functioning of the medical college.

Also Read: Don't blame the Dean, Blame us says MBBS Students of Madurai Medical College