Kerala High Court held that election duty staff cannot be deprived of their voting rights and must be given postal ballots immediately. The Court directed authorities to issue ballots by 2 PM to ensure free and fair elections.
The Kerala High Court on Wednesday made it clear that election duty cannot become a reason to take away a person’s right to vote. In an important interim order, the Court said that even polling officials must be given a fair chance to cast their vote and directed that all such officials be provided postal ballots by 2 pm the same day in the case.
Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas passed the direction while hearing a plea filed by the Kerala NGO Union, which raised serious concerns over the delay and non-receipt of postal ballots by government employees assigned election duty.
These officials, who are usually deployed for polling work during elections, are normally allowed to vote in advance through postal ballots because they remain engaged in election work on the actual polling day and cannot visit their own polling booths.
During the hearing, the Court strongly underlined the importance of voting rights and observed,
“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 before the High Court said that many government employees who had been deputed for election duty had applied for postal ballots within the prescribed time. However, despite following the process, several of them were either not issued postal ballots at all or did not receive them in time. Because of this, the petitioner argued that many such officials were at risk of losing their right to vote altogether.
The Court also considered Rule 18A of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, which specifically allows voters on election duty to obtain postal ballots and cast their votes through designated facilitation centres. This rule exists to ensure that election officials, despite being engaged in conducting the electoral process, are not denied participation in the same democratic exercise.
Even though the Court expressed some doubt about whether the writ petition was technically maintainable, it still chose to intervene at this stage in order to protect the voting rights of the affected officials and to ensure that the election process remains free and fair. The Court noted that safeguarding the franchise of polling staff was too important to be ignored merely because of a procedural objection at this stage.
Accordingly, the High Court directed that all election duty voters must receive their postal ballots on the same day. It further ordered that the list of such voters must be submitted to the nodal officer before 2 pm so that the process could be completed without further delay. Recording the stand of the parties and issuing interim directions, the Court stated,
“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 had been filed in the background of the Kerala legislative assembly elections scheduled for April 9. The Kerala NGO Union, representing non-gazetted government officers deputed for election duty, told the Court that although applications had been submitted within the deadline, a large number of officials were still not issued postal ballot papers during the period fixed for postal voting from April 1 to April 8.
According to the petitioner, the situation on the ground had become highly unfair. Many officials reportedly went to the voter facilitation centres hoping to cast their votes, but were forced to return without voting because ballot papers were not available. This, the Union argued, showed a serious failure in the election machinery’s implementation of the statutory process meant for election duty staff.
The plea further pointed out that April 8 was the final day of the postal voting window. After that, most election duty staff would be busy collecting election materials and travelling to their assigned polling stations to carry out official responsibilities on polling day. Because of this, the petitioner submitted that it had become practically impossible for many such employees to vote unless immediate corrective steps were taken.
The petitioner therefore argued that the failure of the authorities to perform their statutory duty under the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 had effectively disenfranchised a large number of polling officials. On this basis, it sought directions from the High Court to allow such officials to cast their votes even after the polling date, since the problem had arisen due to administrative lapses and not because of any fault on the part of the voters.
Appearing for the petitioner Kerala NGO Union were Advocates Dinesh Mathew J Murikan, Vinod S Pillai, Nayana Varghese, Jerry Peter and Goutham Chandrasekhar. Standing counsel M Ajay appeared for the Election Commission of India.
The matter is significant because it touches the core of electoral fairness. While polling officials play a crucial role in ensuring that elections are conducted smoothly, the High Court’s intervention highlights that the State and election authorities must also ensure that these officials are not denied their own democratic rights in the process. The interim order sends a clear message that administrative delays cannot be allowed to deprive those who are helping conduct the election of the basic right to vote.
Case Title:
Kerala NGO Union v Election Commission of India.
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