Chennai, March 23: The Madras High Court today directed the Election Commission not to conduct searches or seize property from vehicles in connection with the April 13 assembly polls without the authority concerned arriving at the subjective satisfaction on the nature and source of information.
A Division bench comprising Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and M Venugopal passed the interim order on a Public Interest Litigation by a retired school teacher seeking a direction to restrain the authorities from conducting “illegal and arbitrary searches” and seizing property from vehicles on important highways.
When the matter came up for hearing today, R Thiagarajan, the petitioner’s counsel, submitted the public were put to great hardship due to raids by Election Commission officers.
-Agencies