IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CIVIL WRIT JURISDICTION CASE NO.13148 of 2010 ================================================== Shivchandra Prasad Navin s/o late Yamuna Pd. Rai, r/o village Hassanpur Surat, P.O. & P.S. – Patori, District – Samastipur …Petitioner Versus 1. The Union Of India through the Chief Election Commissioner, New Delhi 2. The Chief Election Commissioner, New Delhi 3. The State of Bihar 4. The Chief Electoral Officer, Bihar, Patna …. Respondents ================================================= APPEARANCE For the Appellants : Mr. M. Chatterjee, Advocate For the Election : Mr. J. P. Karn, Sr. Advocate Commission of India Mr. Siddhartha Prasad, Advocate For the State : Mr. Kaushal Kumar Jha, Advocate ================================================ CORAM: HONOURABLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE and HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE JYOTI SARAN ORAL ORDER (Per: HONOURABLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE) 2 13/8/2010 Heard learned advocates. The petitioner, a Headmaster in the Government Middle School, has filed this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution in public interest to enforce the right to vote conferred upon each citizen including the government servants on election duty. It is the claim of the petitioner that ordinarily school teachers are engaged by the State Government for election duty either for the Parliamentary Election or for the State legislative Assembly Election. It is his grievance that such teachers and other government servants, who are on election duty, are deprived of their right to cast vote at such elections. It is, therefore, 2 prayed that the employees on election duty be permitted to cast their vote by proxy. The petition is contested by learned advocate Mr. J.P.Karn. He has submitted that adequate provisions are made in the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 for voting by the Government servants on election duty. He has relied upon Rule 18 of the said Rules. Rule 18 provides for the persons entitled to vote by post. Clause (a) (iii) specifically refers to voters on election duty. Rule 20 provides for the procedure and the Forms to be filled in by such voters. Learned advocate Mr. Karn has contested the demand of the petitioner for permission to vote by proxy. He has relied upon Rules 27M & 27N of the Rules to submit that the right to vote by proxy is conferred upon classified service voters alone. The classified service voters are those who are mentioned in Rules 27M & 27N read with section 60 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and section 20 (8) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. Right to vote by proxy can be exercised by those categories of persons alone and by none else. The voters on election duty are not included in the category of classified service voters defined in Rule 27M of the Rules. Government servants on election duty cannot be permitted to vote by proxy. Upon reading of the aforesaid provisions, it is abundantly clear that the employees on election duty are not deprived of their right to vote at the Parliamentary Election or at the State Legislative Election. They are 3 permitted to cast their votes by post. The only procedure required to be followed is filling up requisite Forms. We are sure that the State Government will facilitate servants on election duty to cast their votes by post. For that matter, the State Government will provide the requisite Forms to the employees on election duty. In view of the aforesaid provisions and the assurance given by the State Counsel to facilitate the servants on election duty to cast their vote by post, no further order is required to be made on this petition. The petition is, accordingly, disposed of. Copy of this order be given to learned advocates appearing for the parties. Neyaz/ ( R. M. Doshit,CJ.) ( Jyoti Saran, J.)