Two days before counting of votes in Haryana, a ruling Indian National Lok Dal candidate on Monday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Election Commission's decision to advance the counting date.

The petition, filed by Zile Singh, pointed out that the EC had rescheduled the counting from February 27 to 23. The decision would render useless over 1.6 lakh postal ballots, mainly those from defence personnel. It would also negate their right to meaningfully exercise their franchise, the petition said.

A three-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice R C Lahoti, posted the matter for detailed hearing on Tuesday.

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Mentioning the petition, senior advocate Mukul Rohtagi requested the SC either to postpone the counting of votes till February 27 to include postal ballots or ask the EC not to declare the results till February 27 when the postal ballots would be taken into account.

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The petitioner said under the Representation of People Act, postal ballots had to be counted first before taking up the counting of other ballots.