Spare Madurai Medical College as Vote Counting Centre In Future Elections: Madras HC

Madras- The Madras High Court has directed the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer, the T.N. government and the Madurai district administration to spare the Madurai Medical College from being used as a vote-counting centre during future elections.

However, it is too late to direct the ECI to find another counting centre for the Madurai parliamentary constituency for the 2024 general elections, the judge noted and said that they expect the centre to be shifted out of the medical college during future elections.

The bench of two judges Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the order while disposing of a writ petition filed by the six college’s student council president M. Raj Mohamed, vice-president B. Yalini, general secretaries Alwin John and J. Anamika, men’s hostel general secretary U.S. Kamalesh and women’s hostel general secretary Swernarekha.

Representing the six students, senior advocate B. Saravanan argued to the court that the Government Madurai Medical College was a premier institution whose students and staff were facing massive hardships due to the use of its building as a vote-counting centre during the elections, reports The Hindu.

On the other hand, ECI counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan argued that the Medical College has been serving as the vote-counting centre since 1998. It is a preferred venue, both from the logistical and security point of view, to serve as the single venue for counting of votes during the general elections.

He further said that the district administration had inspected 12 other buildings, including the American College and Vishva Tamil Sangam in Madurai city, to shift the vote-counting centre for this year's parliamentary elections, but none of them was found suitable for the purpose.

After hearing both sides, the bench of judges wrote “We may hasten to add that the apprehension expressed by learned Senior Counsel for the petitioners is not unfounded... At the time of entry, every student and staff member will have to show his/her identity card. The said arrangement is not for a day or two but for almost one and a half months”.

Since the ECI will take possession of the college building a week before the polling day on April 19 and will hand it back only after the counting of votes on June 4, the bench further added “Certainly, the students and the staff would be facing a lot of difficulty. The respondents can consider other venues and/or buildings for using them as counting centres in future. Madurai is not a small city. It has various government buildings and institutions”.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by six student leaders of Madurai Medical College to exempt their institution from being used as a vote-counting centre for more than a month, which would cause inconvenience to the students and Employees. Typically, during every Lok Sabha election, around ₹2 crore is spent on making temporary changes in the Government Medical College building in Madurai to house the EVMs and count the votes.

Furthermore, the judges Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharat Chakraborty also said that a new building can be built elsewhere in the city by spending a little more.

Along with this, the judges also said that Madurai Medical College should at least abstain from the next elections and also directed the Madurai Collector to find out if it could be done even for this year’s election and a government counsel to obtain instructions from the Collector by March 22.