A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday directed the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to take adequate steps to ensure that the polled postal ballots are stored with adequate safety and security and without any chance for tampering or corrupting the votes.
The Bench comprising Chief Justice S. Manikumar and Justice Shaji P. Chali issued the directive while disposing of a petition filed by K. Muralidharan, Anad Jayan, and Deepak Joy, Congress candidates from Nemom, Vamanapuram and Vypin constituencies respectively, seeking a directive to the Election Commission to keep all the polled postal ballots in safe custody as is being done in the case of VVPAT machines.
When the petition came up for hearing, the counsel for the Election Commission informed the court that today was the last day of securing such votes and that the Chief Electoral Officer had made necessary arrangements for videography of the process of deposit of the polled postal ballots in strong rooms.
EC’s counsel also submitted that adequate Central Reserve Police Force and the State Police Force would be deployed to ensure safety.
Counsel informed the court that polled postal ballots would be secured by the Returning Officer in appropriate strong rooms provided for the purpose in accordance with the directions of the CEO and at the time of depositing the polled postal ballots, the candidates or their authorised representatives are informed and they are entitled to witness the said event in accordance with law. It also pointed out that these procedures are guided by Part III of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.
