Kerala HC dismisses Mayoral candidate and filmmaker V M Vinu's appeal to include his name in voters' list

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday dismissed the petition filed by filmmaker V M Vinu, fielded as Mayoral candidate of Congress in Kozhikode Corporation, seeking a directive to the district collector to consider his appeal against the removal of his name from the voters' list. While dismissing the petition, Justice PV Kunhikrishnan said, Simply because the petitioner is a celebrity, there can be no preference to him. He's only an ordinary citizen of this country. When the petition came up for hearing, the court asked, Do you have a case in which anybody deleted you from the electoral roll? Did the celebrity not read the newspaper? Even after the published draft list, the citizens will get a chance to add their names to the list. Why did you not file an objection? The petitioner's counsel submitted that the ruling party deleted his name. In response, the court asked, Why were you blaming other political parties? The United Democratic Front leaders approached Vinu and asked him to contest the election to the Kallayi division, number 37 of Kozhikode Corporation, and he decided to contest the election. However, at the time of filing the nomination papers, it came to the notice of the petitioner and others that his name was not included in the list. V M Vinu met the Electoral Registration officer only to get to know that the time was over. Thus, he filed an appeal before the district collector, which is still pending. According to the petitioner, he has taken all the steps to contest the election. The court had said that the preparation of electoral rolls started on July 19. A preliminary voters list was published, and there was an opportunity for the petitioner to object if his name was not there. Thereafter, the final voters list was published on September 2, and again, after revision, a final voter list was published ed October 15. However, the petitioner has not objected at that stage either, the court remarked. The Commission provided chances to citizens whose names were not mentioned in the final voters' list to update, and they were allowed to submit objections on November 4 and 5. The counsel for the petitioner states that his name is deleted because there is a political rivalry. I'm surprised to see such an argument from the petitioner. This is the fault of the petitioner himself. He need not blame others, and he has to blame himself. There's nothing in it. The petition is dismissed, said the Single Judge.