Tamil Nadu Assembly elections | Consider reasonable requests of voters on poll responsibility, Madras HC tells ECI
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‘Those helping others to vote can’t be denied their proper to train franchise’
Taking critical word of a grievance that many authorities officers on poll responsibility don’t get to solid their postal votes correctly because of paucity of time and different points, the Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to make sure that their reasonable request for exercising their franchise successfully was attended to as greatest as doable. The fee was additionally ordered to try to be sure that greater than 90% of voters on poll responsibility get to vote by way of postal ballots.
Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy issued the instructions whereas disposing of a public curiosity litigation petition filed by Tamil Nadu High-Higher Secondary Graduate Teachers Association. Senior counsel R. Viduthalai, assisted by V. Arun, mentioned many officers, deputed to constituencies apart from the one by which they reside, don’t vote as a result of the postal papers got to them solely through the silence interval (48 hours earlier than the precise day of polling).
Some poll officers discover it tough to get their postal votes attested by gazetted officers and they also find yourself submitting invalid votes with out the attestation, he mentioned. To appropriate such anomalies, which led to losing of a number of thousand of votes throughout each election and to make sure that all officers get to vote correctly, he insisted that the postal ballots must be given to them through the first coaching session itself. This approach the voters on poll responsibility would have adequate time to get them attested.
Finding drive in his submissions, the judges ordered that the reasonable request of the petitioner affiliation should be accepted so far as doable. The Bench additionally mentioned that individuals who commit their time and vitality, with out receiving ample honorarium and contemplate it their responsibility to assist individuals vote, shouldn’t be denied their very own elementary proper in a democracy. The Chief Justice counseled the poll officers for braving tough circumstances to make polling doable in rural, hilly and tribal areas.
Though the PIL petition was filed for letting all voters on poll responsibility, and never simply these deputed inside their constituencies, to vote by way of digital voting machines (EVMs) upfront, ECI counsel Niranajan Rajagopalan reported to the court docket that it could not be doable to let anybody to vote by way of EVMs earlier than the precise day of polling as a result of the regulation doesn’t present for it. It was after this submission, the petitioner’s counsel insisted on offering sufficient time to solid votes by way of postal ballots.
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