Jaipur:<\/strong> In a major development concerning the Khatushyamji Municipal Board Chairman election, the Rajasthan High Court has quashed the order deferring the election process and directed the Returning Officer to count the votes cast on September 21 and declare the result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand, while deciding the petition filed by elected councillor Vinita Pooniya, held that the absence of a single voter could not be a ground for postponing the election or ordering a re-poll. Also, held that the polling process can be adjourned only in extreme circumstances where the polling is obstructed or interrupted by riots, violence, disturbance of public peace or natural calamity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the context, the poll was scheduled on September 21, from 10 AM to 2 PM, during which 19 out of 20 elected members cast their votes. The Returning Officer had subsequently extended the polling time several times. On that the State Election Commission had deferred the process to September 25 after one elected member allegedly remained absent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After examining the facts and rules, Court held that the statutory election mechanism under the Rajasthan Municipalities (Election) Rules, 1994 required the counting to take place immediately after the polling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Court also observed that the provisions which allows postponement or adjournment of polling is allowed in situations of riots, violence, disturbance of public peace, natural calamity or other exceptional circumstances. The Court categorically observed that the election schedule fixed by the State Election Commission should not ordinarily be postponed, except in circumstances that make holding the election impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Court further held that the right to vote is a statutory right which has to be exercised at the time, place and in the manner prescribed by the Election Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A voter\u2019s absence after the prescribed polling time cannot result in the entire election being stalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Court also noted that the FIR alleging that the absent councillor had been abducted was registered after the scheduled polling hours had ended, and there was no complaint or FIR before the Returning Officer during the original polling period alleging such abduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Setting aside the September 22 order by which the election process had been deferred, the High Court directed the Returning Officer to count the votes cast between 10 AM and 2 PM on September 21 and declare the result of the Khatushyamji Municipal Board Chairman election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Court directed that the counting and declaration of result be undertaken preferably within 24 hours of receipt of the certified copy of the order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The result, the Court clarified, would remain subject to the remedy of an election petition, if available under law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" HC Directs Returning Officer to Count the 19 Votes Cast on September 21, Declare the Within 24 Hours, Holding That Mere Absence of One Voter Cannot Justify Postponement or Re-Poll. Jaipur: In a major development concerning the Khatushyamji Municipal Board Chairman election, the Rajasthan High Court has quashed the order deferring the election process and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wppp_is_locked":false,"_wppp_selected_plans":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,69],"tags":[3532,3548,3547,3538,3531,3534,48,3401,3539,659,43,3536,3537,3541,3533,3535,3470,3542],"class_list":["post-9830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories","category-rajasthan-high-court","tag-chairman-election","tag-election-adjournment","tag-election-postponement","tag-election-result","tag-khatushyamji","tag-khatushyamji-municipal-board","tag-legal-news","tag-municipal-election","tag-nineteen-votes","tag-rajasthan-hc","tag-rajasthan-high-court","tag-rajasthan-municipalities-election-rules","tag-rajasthan-municipalities-election-rules-nineteen-ninety-four","tag-re-poll","tag-re-poll-quashed","tag-returning-officer","tag-right-to-vote","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9832,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9830\/revisions\/9832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lawsandlegals.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The Court held that this matter did not fall within those circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u2018Mere Absence of Voter Cannot Become Ground for Re-Poll\u2019<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
FIR Lodged After Polling Hours<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
HC Orders Counting of 19 Votes<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Declaration of Result within 24 hours<\/h4>\n\n\n\n