Disposing petitions filed by advocate Neela Gokhale and MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar, the bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi noted that it had passed such an order on March 24, 2014, ahead of the General Elections
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Election Commission to consider relaxing the rule that requires armed forces personnel, posted in peace stations, to be counted as voters of the place of their posting only if they have been residing there for three continuous years.
Disposing petitions filed by advocate Neela Gokhale and MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar, the bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi noted that it had passed such an order on March 24, 2014, ahead of the General Elections.
The arrangement worked out successfully. However, the Election Commission and Centre replied to the Court not to extend this arrangement in future. The Centre raised the objection on the ground that in far-flung postings in North East and Jammu and Kashmir such an arrangement could not be practical. This was because, in these constituencies, the civilian population is very low. By allowing military personnel to be counted as voters of those constituencies, this would alter the demographic profile of the seats, thus rendering the vote of the local population ineffective.
Gokhale argued that defence personnel are voted in their constituency of origin but it is not practical to reach their native villages or towns for casting votes. Being the wife of an Army officer, she contended that no officer gets to spend tenure of three years at peace stations.
Without passing any orders, the bench, also comprising of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna, said, "It will be open to Election Commission to introduce flexibility in the eligibility conditions to enable defence voters (service voters) to be enrolled as voters in the places where they are serving."
Order Order
It will be open to EC to introduce flexibility in the eligibility conditions to enable defence voters (service voters) to be enrolled as voters in the places where they are serving, the jury said
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