Right to vote cannot be denied: Kerala HC directs urgent issuance of postal ballots to election duty staff

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday observed that the right to vote cannot be denied even to polling officials and all such officials should be provided postal ballots to vote by 2 pm today [Kerala NGO Union v Election Commission of India]

Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas passed the direction on a plea by an NGO flagging delay/ non-receipt of postal ballots for polling duty officials to cast their votes.

Government staff are deputed for polling duty for elections and they are usually provided with postal ballots to cast their votes before the actual polling date since they would be on election duty on the polling date.

"You can't deprive a voter of the right to exercise a franchise even if he is a polling officer," the judge remarked.

The plea alleged that several government employees on election duty were not issued postal ballot despite applying within time and hence, they should be allowed to vote even beyond the polling date.

The Court referred to Rule 18A of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, (1961 Rules) which enables voters on election duty to receive postal ballot and cast their votes at designated facilitation centres.

The Court, however, expressed its reservations about the maintainability of the petition but proceeded to issue interim directions in order to safeguard the voting rights of officials.

It directed that all voters on election duty should receive postal ballot today itself and that a list of such persons should be communicated to the nodal officer before 2 pm today.

"Dehors the question regarding maintainability of this writ petition, in order to ensure free and fair elections, respondents agree to facilitate issuance of postal ballots to election duty voters, subject to submission of the list to the nodal officer at the voter facilitation centre by 1 pm today, at the earliest, at any rate not later than 2 pm today. Posted at 3.30 pm," the Court ordered.

The petition was filed by the Kerala NGO Union, representing non-gazetted government officers deputed for election duty in the Kerala legislative assembly elections scheduled for April 9.

The plea alleged that although the officers had submitted applications within the prescribed time, a large number of them were not issued postal ballot papers within the stipulated period from April 1 to April 8.

According to the petitioner, many officials who visited vote facilitation centres were forced to return without voting due to non-availability of ballot papers.

The petition further pointed out that April 8 was the last day of the postal voting window and it has now become practically impossible for election duty staff to vote since they have to collect election materials and travel to their assigned polling stations for election duty.

The petitioner thus approached the Court contending that failure on the part of the authorities to discharge their statutory duty under the 1961 Rules resulted in the effective disenfranchisement of a large number of election officials.

Hence, the petitioner sought directions to permit such officials to cast their votes even after the polling date.

Advocates Dinesh Mathew J Murikan, Vinod S Pillai, Nayana Varghese, Jerry Peter and Goutham Chandrasekhar appeared for the petitioner, Kerala NGO Union.

Standing counsel M Ajay appeared for the Election Commission of India.

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