Now Reading: Rajasthan High Court: voter names cannot be excluded due to political intervention
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Rajasthan High Court: voter names cannot be excluded due to political intervention
Rajasthan High Court: voter names cannot be excluded due to political intervention
The Rajasthan High Court has quashed the rejection of a woman's application to transfer her name to the electoral roll of her ward, holding that a person cannot be deprived of the…
The Rajasthan High Court has quashed the rejection of a woman's application to transfer her name to the electoral roll of her ward, holding that a person cannot be deprived of the right to vote due to the whims of an electoral officer or political intervention. Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand directed the Electoral Registration Officer to include the petitioner's name in the rolls by transposition.
The petitioner, a resident of Ward 7 in Gram Panchayat Aalamsar Khurd, had her application initially accepted but later rejected the same day without notice or hearing. The court rejected the state's preliminary objection that she should have appealed under Rule 21 of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Election) Rules, noting that no appeal lies when no opportunity of hearing was given. The court held that the rejection violated principles of natural justice and that the right to vote is a basic feature of democracy.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The ruling reaffirms that electoral registration officers must follow due process even at the panchayat level, where political pressure is often harder to check. Under Section 18(2)(b) of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, a person is entitled to be registered in the ward where they ordinarily reside, and the Act provides no discretion to deny that right arbitrarily. The court's emphasis on natural justice closes a loophole: an officer cannot reverse an accepted application without giving the applicant a hearing. The immediate next step is for the officer to comply with the court's direction and transpose the petitioner's name before the next panchayat election in that ward.
Source: livelaw.in
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
