Supreme Court Rejects Plea Seeking Voting Arrangements For Displaced Manipuris, Says Too Late To Issue Directions To Election Commission

The Supreme Court on Monday (April 15) declined to entertain a petition seeking voting arrangements for approximately18,000 who got displaced from Manipur due to the ethnic clash to cast their votes in their home constituency in the Lok Sabha General Elections scheduled to take place on April 19 and 26.  

The bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra observed that it would not be practical to direct the Election Commission of India (ECI) to make accommodations for the Internally Displaced Persons(IDPs) located in nearby areas of Shillong, Kolkata, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Kohima three days before the commencement of the General Elections in Manipur.  

"With a short span of 3 days left for the 1st round of voting, the course of action claimed would be entirely impracticable. Moreover, the claim of the petitioners, although bonafidely does raise a broader issue of the policy bearing on the conduct of the elections, something over which the ECI is constitutionally vested with control and supervision under Article 224 of the Constitution." 

 " Interference of this court particularly at this belated stage would cause substantial impediments in the conduct of the ensuing general elections of the Loksabha Constituency for state of Manipur. We are therefore not inclined to issue any directions of this sort for the reason mentioned in the earlier part of the judgement."

The Court noted that while the ECI had on February 29, 2024, issued a scheme for voting of IDPs within Manipur at 'Transitory Camps', the Petitioner's plea seeking directions specifically for IDPs outside of Manipur has come at a very belated stage, despite being aware of the said scheme formulated in February. The Court while recording the submissions of the ECI on similar lines, observed the following : 

Mr Ankit Aggarwal appearing for ECI submits that quite apart from the bar contained in Article 329 of the Constitution, in the present case, it is too late in the day for the ECI to consider making arrangements for the nature sought by the petitioner. Learned Counsel submits that elections to the Constituency of the state of Manipur are to take place on 19th April and 26th April. It is submitted that Petitioners were aware of the scheme of voting at transit camps, which was notified on 29 Feb, the petition is filed on the verge of ensuing elections.

Voting Relief On Parity With Kashmiri Migrants Unfounded: Court Rejects Petitioner's Contention 

The key contention of the petitioners was that a scheme for IDPs outside Manipur be directed to be made by the ECI on similar lines of the scheme made for Kashmiri Migrants who were displaced outside their constituencies but were accommodated to cast their votes in 'transitory camps'. 

Advocate Hetvi Patel appearing for the petitioners relied upon J&K People's Representative Act 1957 and Conduct of Elections Rules 1965 to buttress the above contention.  She insisted that delay in filing the present petition cannot be a reason for denying one's right to vote 

" Some delay cannot be a reason for stopping our constitutional right to vote ....second phase is on 26 April, some accommodation we are seeking, we are not saying 19th only , some sort of arrangement to be made for us." 

The Court however rejected her submission, on the grounds that a parity cannot be made in the present situation. The bench explained that while the J&K provisions on voting for displaced persons were extended by the ECI when the reorganisation of the States took place, no such legal circumstance exists when it comes to elections in Manipur. 

"While the petitioners have relied upon arrangements of J&K, we find from the notification of 22.3.24 of ECI that right since the election of the state's legislative assembly in 1996 a special scheme was devised under the Jammu and Kashmir People's Representation Act 1957 which enabled migrant voters to vote by postal ballot for the constituencies in the places where they were registered as voters. The background of the state of J&K emerges from the preambulatory statements in the notification (as extracted from submissions) the above background cannot be construed to be on all fours with the present situation in Manipur" 

It may be noted that the ECI on March 16 announced that the General Elections in Manipur will take place in 4-phased manner. The people of Manipur will be voting for two Lok Sabha seats.

Case Details : NAULAK KHAMSUANTHANG vs. ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA W.P.(C) No. 000243 - / 2024 

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