Chennai, April 27: The Madras High Court yesterday restrained Tamil Nadu Police from collecting booth wise details of electorate who exercised their option not to vote under Rule 49-O in the recent assembly elections.
A bench comprising Chief Justice M Y Eqbal and Justice T S Sivagnanam gave the interim order on a PIL petition seeking to forebear police authorities from collecting personal details and “harassing” the electorate who exercised the option not to vote in favour of any of the contestants.
It also directed the state Chief Electoral Officer to file the counter to the petition by one S Sathiachandran.
The petitioner alleged that the police had “unleashed an unsustainable imagination that those who had opted the 49-O option could have links with Naxalites”.
—-PTi