NEW DELHI: Taking exception to the incident of damaging EVM allegedly by YASRCP MLA and his supporters as "sheer mockery of the system", the Supreme Court on Monday barred leader Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy from entering the counting area on June 4.
A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and Sandeep Mehta questioned the Andhra Pradesh High Court's order which granted interim protection in such matters as a video had gone viral purportedly showing the MLA smashing the EVM machine in the polling booth in Macherla.
Hearing a plea by TDP activist from Macherla, Namburi Seshagiri Rao, against YSR Congress MLA, the bench said, "Let this be an example. We will tell the high court to decide it on merits without being influenced by its earlier order."
A counsel for Rao, also the counting agent of the TDP claimed that the MLA had destroyed the EVM in Macherla on the day of polling on May 13.
He asked the bench to examine the video of the incident, allegedly webcast by the Election Commission.
What fun is being made. This is the mockery of the system, sheer mockery! How many people can enter the polling booth, the bench asked, after watching the video of the incident.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, for the MLA submitted that the high court granted anticipatory bail to Reddy till June 5, let it examine the matter on June 6.
Singh said that he was ready to give an undertaking that he would not go near the counting station. He asked the bench to allow the high court to continue hearing the matter.
During the hearing, the bench asked how the interim protection was given by the high court in such a case.
The bench noted it was not only about the video but there are pictures of the EVM being damaged on the Election Commissions website and it was a live web telecast.
We can ignore the video and photographs. The complainant says both EVM and VVPAT were taken away and destroyed, eight people stormed inside the polling booth," the bench asked Singh, who maintained the identity of the persons storming the polling booth was yet to be ascertained.
Singh said his client was not named in the first FIR and his name included in the FIR ten days later.
"The videos, regarding the incident, brought on record are not official," he claimed.
The bench told Singh that his client can give an undertaking that he will not be seen in the vicinity of the counting area.
Mr Singh, this video is not a doctored video, the bench said.
The court, however, accepted his submissions that he will not enter the counting area and station concerned at Macherla assembly constituency.
The bench said the submission will suffice at this stage. It directed the high court to decide on extension of bail plea on June 6 independent of earlier grant of interim protection.
A video showing MLA Ramakrishna Reddy smashing the EVM at a polling booth went viral on May 13. The incident took place during the simultaneous polling for elections to the assembly and Lok Sabha in Andhra Pradesh.
The MLA had moved the high court for anticipatory bail. The high court restrained the police from taking any coercive action against the MLA till June 5 and posted the matter for further hearing to June 6.
