Plea to modify Election Commission’s transfer guidelines for polls binned

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by a Police Sub-Inspector (SI) from Sivaganga challenging the guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to transfer election duty officials to other districts than their home district for the upcoming assembly election. 

The petitioner, M Muthukumar, submitted that the ECI issued certain guidelines to the poll-bound states, including Tamil Nadu on December 18, 2020. One of them was that government officers directly connected with the conduct of election should not be posted in their home district, he added.

He stated that if SIs are suddenly transferred to other districts, they would find it difficult to shift their residence immediately and would not be able to draw part of their salary for two months. Claiming that the ECI, in its guidelines issued to other States in January 2019, stated that such transfer can be made from one sub-division to another subdivision within the district itself, he prayed the court to direct the commission to modify the recent guidelines to that effect.

However, Justice MS Ramesh, who heard the plea, said that the court would not interfere in the matter. “The ECI is conferred with the powers to pass such guidelines. If any order is passed in this issue, it could have a huge impact on the election process,” he pointed out.

Moreover, just because the ECI had issued a different set of guidelines previously, it cannot be said that similar guidelines should be issued in the ensuing years as well, he opined and dismissed the petition.