Telangana state high court on Friday suspended a late-night circular issued by the state election commission allowing any mark by pen other than Swastika stamp on the ballot paper for considering it as a valid vote during counting.
The SEC circular said even an ink mark on the ballot paper, instead of a Swastika mark, on the ballot paper can be considered a valid vote can be treated it as a mistake of the polling official and not that of a voter.
It shows the intention of the voters to vote for a particular candidate and so, it can be taken into consideration for counting, the SEC said.
The circular came as a rude shock to the opposition parties and made them wonder how such an order could be issued without consulting all the parties.
It would mean those ruling party agents could have marked the ballots with ink mark and they would be considered as votes.
The BJP immediately moved a house motion in the state high court early in the morning and after hearing, the court gave a ruling suspending the circular and declaring that only those ballots with Swastika mark could be considered valid for counting.
The high court said all such votes with a different mark other than Swastika should be counted separately.
If their number is more than the majority secured by any candidate, the result would be withheld and if the victory margin of a candidate is more than these non-Swastika marked votes, then the result could be declared.
It directed the SEC to immediately flash the judgement to all the counting centres immediately and asked the commission to file a counter with all details by Monday.
The commission, however, said no such order was received from the court so far and the counting has been going on as usual.
