HC poser to ECI on inviting applications for postal ballot

The Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to clarify why it had determined to invite applications from the bodily challenged and people above 80 years of age for exercising the choice of voting by postal ballot solely after the publication of the notification for the Assembly election.

Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy directed ECI counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan to make sure that a counter-affidavit is filed by the Commission by Friday, explaining the rationale for not beginning the method properly prematurely so that there’s higher transparency and the political events may get to know the checklist of voters who had opted for postal ballot.

The interim course was issued on a writ petition filed by DMK principal secretary K.N. Nehru, searching for a course to the ECI to furnish an Assembly constituency-wise checklist of voters above 80 years of age and those that are bodily challenged, who’ve been categorised as ‘absentee voters’ and permitted to solid their votes by postal ballot.

Senior counsel R. Viduthalai, assisted by S. Manuraj, claimed that the ECI would have already executed a profiling of the ultimate electoral roll, consisting of 6.13 crore voters within the State, and brought a separate checklist of these above 80 years of age. He alleged that the Commission, for causes greatest identified to it, needed to keep the info as a secret and never share it with registered political events.

On the opposite hand, Mr. Rajagopalan informed the courtroom that the Commission had not executed any profiling but. He mentioned the plan, as of now, was to give 5 days’ time after the publication of the election notification for the bodily challenged and aged voters to file applications to the Returning Officers together with needed certificates, searching for permission for casting their votes by postal ballot.

Stating that the checklist of the candidates can be launched thereafter, the counsel mentioned the political events may need round 10 days’ time to confirm the checklist. He additionally acknowledged that the current writ petition was fully untimely, and that it had been filed on the premise of an unfounded apprehension of potential manipulation of the voters’ checklist, when no such incident had ever occurred.

He mentioned that these affected by COVID-19 would even be given the choice of casting their votes by postal ballot. Observing that the exception made for COVID-19 sufferers was a unique matter, the judges mentioned prima facie they didn’t discover any purpose for the bodily challenged and aged voters not being allowed to file applications, indicating their alternative properly prematurely.

Therefore, they directed the ECI to file an in depth counter-affidavit and directed the Registry to checklist the case for listening to as soon as once more on Monday, when the courtroom would additionally hear one other writ petition filed by the DMK, by senior counsel P. Wilson, difficult a authorized provision which empowers the ECI to exempt sure classes of voters from having to go to polling stations and permits them to solid their votes by postal ballot as an alternative.