The DMK on Monday told the Madras High Court that the Election Commission of India (ECI), by permitting COVID-19 patients to vote through postal ballot, is putting election officials and others at risk of contracting the virus. It would be better if those patients not come to polling booths and not vote at all, the party said.
Appearing before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, senior counsel P. Wilson said there was no clarity on how election officials, videographers, police officers and politicians would visit hospitals and those in home quarantine, and how they would give and take back the postal ballot papers from those in quarantine. “Even in the Madras High Court, we have been keeping every paper filed in this court on quarantine for 24 hours before touching them. But when it comes to postal ballot, there’s no clarity on who will meet the patients in quarantine and obtain the postal votes. It is better that…