The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed that counting of votes in Haryana be taken up on February 27, as originally scheduled.
The Election Commission had decided to count the votes on February 23 for the sake of convenience. On the 27th, only votes in Bihar and Jharkhand were going to be counted.
But a ruling Indian National Lok Dal candidate moved the SC challenging the decision.
The petition, filed by Zile Singh, said 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 on Tuesday held that counting of votes could not be taken up before receiving the postal ballots.
It said the EC had no serious objection to take up the counting on February 27.
The court, however, made it clear that this order would not in any way reflect on the EC's powers in other cases.