The Madras High Court on Wednesday held as valid, the election conducted for South Indian Film Artistes Association (SIAA), popularly known as Nadigar Sangam, in 2019 and ordered counting of votes from ballot boxes, which have been kept in a bank locker since then. The court directed the election officer to open the ballot boxes, count the votes and declare the results.
Justices Pushpa Sathyanarayana and Mohammed Shaffiq ordered that the entire process of declaration of results must be completed within four weeks. However, when a counsel for some members of the association sought time to approach the Supreme Court, the judges added a line to their verdict that the declaration of results should not be done before three weeks.
Allowing an appeal, the Division Bench agreed with senior counsel M.K. Kabir, E. Omprakash and Krishna Ravindran that the elections held on June 23, 2019, were perfectly in order and hence a single judge of the High Court ought not to have declared the election as null and void in January 2020 and ordered fresh elections within three months by appointing a new Election Officer.
