Elections 2024: Exempted Categories - Polling Persons Polling Duties Exemption Rules 2024. Elections - Exempted Categories Poling Personal- Polling Duties Exemption Rules. It's been a important topic during elections that who can be exempted from duty ?
3.1.1. Under Section 26 of the Representation of People Act, 1951, the District Election Officer is responsible for the appointment of the Presiding Officer and staff for each polling station in respect of all Assembly constituencies comprised within that district. When any constituency extends over more than one district, it should be settled in consultation with the Chief Electoral Officer as to who should appoint the polling staff.
3.1.3. The orders for requisitioning staff for election work are issued by the Chief Electoral Officer under Section 159(1) of R.P. Act, 1951, requesting the authorities mentioned in sub-section (2) of Section 159 of Representation of the People Act, 1951 to make available to Returning Officer such staff as may be necessary for performance of duties in connection with elections. Appointment of staff so seconded to Returning Officer should, however, be made by the District Election Officer under Section 26 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
3.1.4. As per Section 159 of the R.P. Act, 1951 as amended by the R.P. (Amendment) Act, 1998 (Act No. 12 of 1998), the following authorities, when so requested by the Chief Electoral Officer of the State, shall make available such staff as may be necessary for the performance of any duties in connection with an election to any Returning Officer:
i) Every local authority
ii) Every University established or incorporated by or under a Central, Provincial or State Act; iii) A Government company as defined in section 617 of the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956); iv) Any other institution, concern or undertaking which is established by or under a Central,
Provincial or State Act or which is controlled, or financed wholly or substantially by funds provided, directly or indirectly, by the Central Government or a State Government.
Thus, the staff of any of the above-mentioned authorities, companies, institutions, concerns or undertakings could be requisitioned and put on election duty, in addition to employees of Central and State Governments, in view of the above amendment.
i) Based on the availability of staff in the institutions covered under Section 159(2) of the R.P Act 1951, and the requirement of staff, the staff maybe requisitioned from such institutions.
ii) For the purpose of efficient control of the polling personnel and of economy in expenditure on travelling allowances, etc., each district, as far as practicable, should use its own personnel. All the personnel working under the State and Central Government offices in the State, as well as under the local bodies, have to be mobilized and an assessment of availability should be made well in advance.
9. REQUISITION OF STAFF IN CATEGORY OF PWDS AND WOMEN:
9.1 Considering the nature of duty and to avoid causing hardship to such employees, the Commission is of the view that the employees under PwD category "persons with benchmark disability" as defined under Section 2 (r) of The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 should not be deployed on election duty unless required for deployment at PwD- managed Polling Stations.
9.2 However, if any such person is required to be used on election duty, prior approval of the General Observer may be obtained giving full details and justification. The DEO and the RO shall make personal efforts to identify such individuals and appreciate their nature of disabilities and discuss their limitations. Appropriate facilities and assistance should be provided, if deployed for election duty.
9.3 It shall be ensured that they should invariably be posted in proximity to their residence. If any PwD is inadvertently deputed to any difficult location, the Returning Officer should be able to make necessary changes in deployment manually in consultation with the General Observer. 9.4 All such women personnel who are in advance stage of pregnancy (whether are on maternity leave or not) or on medical advice being unfit for any rigorous or hazardous work or lactating women shall be exempted from being requisitioned for election duty.
9.5 Further, every woman employee called for election duty shall be informed, in advance, of arrangements of transport and appropriate stay at the place of duty with basic amenities and unless such arrangement is made and prior information in this behalf is given to such woman employee, she shall not be called to perform any election duty at any such place where the above arrangements are not available.
10.3 The operational/technical staff of BSNL, MTNL, Electricity companies will be requisitioned for election duty only in unavoidable circumstances. However, they can be requisitioned to perform duty related to their department for election purpose.
10.4 Employees of Banks and LIC will be drafted on regular election duty to the minimum extent possible and only in constituencies where there is inadequate number of manpower or in emergent circumstances such as strike etc. However, they can be requisitioned to perform duty of micro observers.
10.5 The present practice of obtaining the prior approval of the High Court before engaging Judicial Officers/staff, under exceptional circumstances, for election work should continue.
What are the Exemption Rules for Election Duty,?
Who can be given exemption under dire necessity?.
Regarding the answers to these questions, Election Commission of India released the Official document in which it is clearly mentioned that who can be appointed as Polling Personal, Who can be exempted.
Elections 2024: Exempted Categories - Polling Persons Polling Duties Exemption Rules 2024
ECI has mentioned in its official documents released in 2023 for Returning Officers in Elections, has clearly mentioned and guidelines issued for appointment of polling personals. The details of the Official document of Election Commission of India, Rule 3 and its sub Rules are explained below which is very useful for all the Polling Personnel across India. Document No.: 324.6.EPS:HB:016:2023
We will discuss the Polling Personnel Duties Exemption Rules for Polling Persons for Various categories like, Persons with Disabilities, Pregnant Women, Lactating Women and other categories.
| 3. | Polling Personnel |
| 3.1 | Legal Provisions |
| 3.2 | General Guidelines ... |
| 3.3 | Exempted Categories |
| 3.4 | Women Officials . |
| 3.5 | Judicial Officers .. |
| 3.6 | Persons with Disabilities |
| 3.7 | Proper Mixing of Polling Personnel Drawn from Different Offices .. |
| 3.8 | Randomization of Polling Parties .. |
| 3.9 | Form for Appointment . |
| 3.10 | Photo Identity Card |
| 3.11 | Training of Polling Personnel |
| 3.12 | Composition of Polling Party .. |
The Third Chapter of the Document for Returning Officers 2023 deals with appointment of Polling Personnel.
3. POLLING PERSONNEL in Elections 2024
3.1. LEGAL PROVISIONS3.1.1. Under Section 26 of the Representation of People Act, 1951, the District Election Officer is responsible for the appointment of the Presiding Officer and staff for each polling station in respect of all Assembly constituencies comprised within that district. When any constituency extends over more than one district, it should be settled in consultation with the Chief Electoral Officer as to who should appoint the polling staff.
Power to appoint polling personnel unilaterally:
3.1.2. Section 26 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 confers not only the power to the DEO to appoint unilaterally the Presiding and Polling Officers but also to impose on them all the obligations of such office irrespective of their consent, at the peril of prosecution under Section 134 of the said Act in default. Refer the judgement of the Calcutta High Court in Shri. R. P. Roy, alias Rampada Roy verses Shri. D. Rudra, District Election Officer & District Magistrate, Howrah (AIR 1971- Calcutta 461). This principle equally applies to any case of refusal to attend training classes, as it is part of the obligation of such appointment as polling personnel.3.1.3. The orders for requisitioning staff for election work are issued by the Chief Electoral Officer under Section 159(1) of R.P. Act, 1951, requesting the authorities mentioned in sub-section (2) of Section 159 of Representation of the People Act, 1951 to make available to Returning Officer such staff as may be necessary for performance of duties in connection with elections. Appointment of staff so seconded to Returning Officer should, however, be made by the District Election Officer under Section 26 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
3.1.4. As per Section 159 of the R.P. Act, 1951 as amended by the R.P. (Amendment) Act, 1998 (Act No. 12 of 1998), the following authorities, when so requested by the Chief Electoral Officer of the State, shall make available such staff as may be necessary for the performance of any duties in connection with an election to any Returning Officer:
i) Every local authority
ii) Every University established or incorporated by or under a Central, Provincial or State Act; iii) A Government company as defined in section 617 of the Companies Act, 1956 (1 of 1956); iv) Any other institution, concern or undertaking which is established by or under a Central,
Provincial or State Act or which is controlled, or financed wholly or substantially by funds provided, directly or indirectly, by the Central Government or a State Government.
Thus, the staff of any of the above-mentioned authorities, companies, institutions, concerns or undertakings could be requisitioned and put on election duty, in addition to employees of Central and State Governments, in view of the above amendment.
3.2. GENERAL GUIDELINES for Polling Personnel in Elections 2024
3.2.1. While requisitioning staff, the following guidelines should be kept in mind:i) Based on the availability of staff in the institutions covered under Section 159(2) of the R.P Act 1951, and the requirement of staff, the staff maybe requisitioned from such institutions.
ii) For the purpose of efficient control of the polling personnel and of economy in expenditure on travelling allowances, etc., each district, as far as practicable, should use its own personnel. All the personnel working under the State and Central Government offices in the State, as well as under the local bodies, have to be mobilized and an assessment of availability should be made well in advance.
The Central Government and State Governments have issued instructions to all their heads of departments and offices of the Central and State Governments to furnish to the District Election Officer data of officers in different categories. This would facilitate Returning Officer’s task of making suitable selection of polling personnel. As the polling parties are to be comprised of a proper mix, to the extent possible, of Central Government/ Central PSU and State Government /State PSU employees, separate database for such officials is to be prepared by Returning Officer. (Some of these Central
3.3.2. The officers and staff of following departments will not be requisitioned for deployment of election duty:
3.3.4. Employees of banks and LIC will be drafted on regular duty to the minimum extent possible.
3.3.5. However, it is further to be noted that any official due to retire within 6 months’ time or who has already retired but is on extension of service or re-employed should not be drafted for any election related duty.
3.3.6. The present practice of obtaining the prior approval of the High Court before engaging Judicial Officers/Staff, under exceptional circumstances, for election work should continue.
3.4.2. All pregnant women and lactating mothers, whether on maternity leave or not, or women staff who are otherwise on medical advice not to undertake any rigorous or hazardous work, maybe exempted from election duty.
3.4.3. Every female official called for election duty should be informed of the arrangements made for her stay and transportation. Unless arrangement is made and information in this behalf is furnished to such female official, she shall not be called to perform any election duty at any such place.
3.4.4. The female polling personnel should not be put on duty on the basis of computer randomization process. They should be put on duty in the neighboring polling stations through manual randomization under the guidance of the Observers, so that they are able to go to the polling stations on the morning of the poll day at least two hours before the start of polling and assume their duties well in time.
3 .4.5. District Election Officers should prepare a negative list of polling stations which are inaccessible or remotely located and no female polling personnel should be posted to such polling stations.
Second category: - In the Urban areas having two or more urban Assembly Constituencies, the randomization of female staff shall be done inter-Assembly Constituency wise among these ACs.
Third category: - In the Urban ACs contiguous to rural ACs, the randomization shall be done within the same urban Assembly Constituency in such a way that the female staff is not posted at the polling station location/ward where she has been residing or working.
Fourth category: - In the mixed Urban-Rural ACs contiguous to rural ACs, randomization for Rural shall be done in such a way that a female staff would not get posted in the Gram Panchayat where she has been residing or she has been working and in urban areas female staff shall not be posted in the polling station location where she has been residing. However, it must be ensured that female staff should not get posted outside the block where she has been residing or working.
i) The present practice of obtaining the prior approval of the High Court before engaging Judicial Officers for election work should continue.
Govt. officials may also be deployed as Micro-Observers).
iii) The database of the above officials should also contain the name, sex, date of birth, AC number and name, Part number and the Serial number of the electoral roll in which he has been enrolled in addition to his residential address and address of office where posted. The sponsoring authorities are expected to discharge a greater role to ease the burden on the DEO/ RO, especially in ensuring delivery of appointment letters and other urgent communications from the DEO/RO to their own officials. All the sponsoring authorities may be asked to appoint a nodal officer who could be contacted by the election authorities in time of need.
iv) Seniority of officials should properly betaken care of, while giving election related duty and it should be ensured that a senior official is not put on duty/under an official who is quite junior to him/her. Presiding Officers and Polling Officers are to be classified on the basis of scale of pay and their post and rank. In determining the rank and status of officials drawn from different pools with different pay scales, the relative position of the official in his cadre/ organization may be taken into account and not merely the pay scale. Say for example, if a Group-D employee from any pool, even if drawing a higher scale should not be assigned duties of a Presiding Officer or Polling Officer. The Presiding Officer should be of higher scale/grade in comparison to all Polling Officers.
v) The employees belonging to the Revenue Departments (Central and State) who are enjoined upon responsibility of the collection of revenues, should be appointed in consultation with departments in- charge of the revenue collection. All representations, which are duly forwarded by the concerned department, in this regard, should be properly considered and cases of disagreement, if any, should be brought to the notice of the Chief Electoral Officer immediately. Further, school teachers working as Extra Department Postmasters should not be put on polling duty as that will lead to interruption in the maintenance of the essential service of Postal Department.
vi) Employees of banks, LIC may be drafted on election duty to the minimum extent possible, only in a constituency where sufficient numbers of govt. employees are not available or in emergent circumstances such as strike etc by the Govt. employees. Care should be taken to ensure that minimum numbers of employees of such institutions are requisitioned so that the business of these institutions is not hampered. However, they can be requisitioned for the duty of Micro-observers.
vii) In case employees of local bodies, namely, Municipalities, Panchayat Samitis, Zila
Parishads, etc., are engaged for polling duties at a polling station, it should be ensured that the Presiding Officer and the Sr. Polling Officer of a polling station (who in the event of absence of Presiding Officer is to function as Presiding Officer) should not both be the employees of local authorities. Further, except the first polling officer, who does the identification, the other Polling Officers could be employees of local authorities.
viii) All establishments and shops including those which work on shift basis shall be closed on
the day of poll in the Constituency where a General/bye-election is to be held. However, there may be cases where a person is ordinarily resident of the Constituency and registered as an elector, may be serving/employed in an industrial undertaking or an establishment located outside the constituency having a general/bye-election. It is clarified that in such a situation, even those electors including casual workers working outside the constituency concerned would be entitled to the benefit of a paid holiday extended under section 135B(1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
The daily wage/casual workers are also entitled for paid holiday on the day of poll as provided in Section 135B of the R.P. Act, 1951.
3.3. EXEMPTED CATEGORIES in Polling Duties
3.3.1. The Commission has exempted certain officers from being drafted for election duty in view of essential nature of duties/service discharged by them.3.3.2. The officers and staff of following departments will not be requisitioned for deployment of election duty:
- • Senior officers of the Indian Forest Service as notified by ECI;
- • Doctors and Compounders working in veterinary hospitals;
- • Medical staff including doctors, nurses, ANMs etc.; (except on Health related election duty)
- • Territorial Staff of Forest Department;
- • Staff of All India Radio and Doordarshan;
- • Officers of Food Corporation of India;
- • Ayurvedic, Unani & Homeopathic Medical Officer of Ayush Deptt. (except on Health related election duty)
- • Officers of Rural branch of commercial bank if it is a single officer branch.
- • Operational Officers / staff of UPSC.
3.3.4. Employees of banks and LIC will be drafted on regular duty to the minimum extent possible.
3.3.5. However, it is further to be noted that any official due to retire within 6 months’ time or who has already retired but is on extension of service or re-employed should not be drafted for any election related duty.
3.3.6. The present practice of obtaining the prior approval of the High Court before engaging Judicial Officers/Staff, under exceptional circumstances, for election work should continue.
3.4. WOMEN OFFICIALS in Polling Duties - Exemptions
3.4.1. The availability of female polling personnel should be examined for appointing Presiding/ Polling Officers in polling stations set up exclusively for female voters or where the number of female voters, especially, pardanashin women is large, there must be at least one lady- polling officer who may facilitate and identify the women electors.3.4.2. All pregnant women and lactating mothers, whether on maternity leave or not, or women staff who are otherwise on medical advice not to undertake any rigorous or hazardous work, maybe exempted from election duty.
3.4.3. Every female official called for election duty should be informed of the arrangements made for her stay and transportation. Unless arrangement is made and information in this behalf is furnished to such female official, she shall not be called to perform any election duty at any such place.
3.4.4. The female polling personnel should not be put on duty on the basis of computer randomization process. They should be put on duty in the neighboring polling stations through manual randomization under the guidance of the Observers, so that they are able to go to the polling stations on the morning of the poll day at least two hours before the start of polling and assume their duties well in time.
3 .4.5. District Election Officers should prepare a negative list of polling stations which are inaccessible or remotely located and no female polling personnel should be posted to such polling stations.
Randomization of Female Polling Personnel:
First category: - In completely rural ACs, female staff shall be randomized manually in such a way that they are not posted in the Gram Panchayat where they have been residing or working.Second category: - In the Urban areas having two or more urban Assembly Constituencies, the randomization of female staff shall be done inter-Assembly Constituency wise among these ACs.
Third category: - In the Urban ACs contiguous to rural ACs, the randomization shall be done within the same urban Assembly Constituency in such a way that the female staff is not posted at the polling station location/ward where she has been residing or working.
Fourth category: - In the mixed Urban-Rural ACs contiguous to rural ACs, randomization for Rural shall be done in such a way that a female staff would not get posted in the Gram Panchayat where she has been residing or she has been working and in urban areas female staff shall not be posted in the polling station location where she has been residing. However, it must be ensured that female staff should not get posted outside the block where she has been residing or working.
3.5. JUDICIAL OFFICERS in Election Duties
3.5.1. The employment of Judicial Officers for election work will be subject to the following conditions:i) The present practice of obtaining the prior approval of the High Court before engaging Judicial Officers for election work should continue.
3.6. PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
3.6.1. Physically challenged persons with disabilities as defined under the “Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities Protection of Rights & Full Participation) Act, 2016 should be deployed on election duty only under unavoidable circumstances.In the case of physically handicapped persons (including visually handicapped and deaf and dumb persons), it maybe considered whether any handicapped person as aforesaid would be able to go to the polling station/ counting Centre and perform election duties there. If any a person would not be in a position to perform election duties, he must be exempted subject to the satisfaction of the District Election Officer/Returning Officer.
3.6.2. However, the Commission encourages to have PwDs manned polling booths with prior approval of CEO.
3.6.3. The DEO and the RO shall make personal efforts to ensure that the special needs and requirements of the physically challenged persons are taken into account while choosing the polling station for deployment. It shall be ensured that they are not posted in any remote area; rather they should invariably be posted at the polling stations located in the headquarter. This can be incorporated in the randomization software itself so that the database contains information about the physically challenged personnel and if any PwD staff inadvertently deployed at difficult locations, RO should make necessary changes manually in consultation with observer.
3.6.4. The RO should make a special effort to identify such individuals at the time of training itself and personally meet and discuss with them in order to understand their nature of disabilities and limitations to decide the deployment. In case any such physically challenged person is even inadvertently deputed to any difficult location, the RO should be in a position to make necessary change manually in consultation with the Observer.
3.6.2. However, the Commission encourages to have PwDs manned polling booths with prior approval of CEO.
3.6.3. The DEO and the RO shall make personal efforts to ensure that the special needs and requirements of the physically challenged persons are taken into account while choosing the polling station for deployment. It shall be ensured that they are not posted in any remote area; rather they should invariably be posted at the polling stations located in the headquarter. This can be incorporated in the randomization software itself so that the database contains information about the physically challenged personnel and if any PwD staff inadvertently deployed at difficult locations, RO should make necessary changes manually in consultation with observer.
3.6.4. The RO should make a special effort to identify such individuals at the time of training itself and personally meet and discuss with them in order to understand their nature of disabilities and limitations to decide the deployment. In case any such physically challenged person is even inadvertently deputed to any difficult location, the RO should be in a position to make necessary change manually in consultation with the Observer.
AP SEC Order on Appointment of Polling Personnels
The below is the extract of the No 464/INST/EPS/2023 Dated 7th June 2023 of ECI India written to all the Chief Secretaries of All States.
9.1 Considering the nature of duty and to avoid causing hardship to such employees, the Commission is of the view that the employees under PwD category "persons with benchmark disability" as defined under Section 2 (r) of The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 should not be deployed on election duty unless required for deployment at PwD- managed Polling Stations.
9.2 However, if any such person is required to be used on election duty, prior approval of the General Observer may be obtained giving full details and justification. The DEO and the RO shall make personal efforts to identify such individuals and appreciate their nature of disabilities and discuss their limitations. Appropriate facilities and assistance should be provided, if deployed for election duty.
9.3 It shall be ensured that they should invariably be posted in proximity to their residence. If any PwD is inadvertently deputed to any difficult location, the Returning Officer should be able to make necessary changes in deployment manually in consultation with the General Observer. 9.4 All such women personnel who are in advance stage of pregnancy (whether are on maternity leave or not) or on medical advice being unfit for any rigorous or hazardous work or lactating women shall be exempted from being requisitioned for election duty.
9.5 Further, every woman employee called for election duty shall be informed, in advance, of arrangements of transport and appropriate stay at the place of duty with basic amenities and unless such arrangement is made and prior information in this behalf is given to such woman employee, she shall not be called to perform any election duty at any such place where the above arrangements are not available.
10. STAFF TO BE EXEMPTED:
10.1 The Commission has exempted certain categories of personnel from being requisitioned for election duty in view of essential nature of duties/service discharged by them. They are as follows:- (i) Senior officers of the Indian Forest Service
- (ii) Medical staff including doctors, nurses, ANMs etc. (except on health-related election duty)
- (iii) Ayurvedic Medical Officer (AMO), Unani Medical Officer (UMO) and Homoeopathic Medical Officer (HMO) of AYUSH Department (except on health- related election duty)
- (iv) Doctors and Compounders working in veterinary hospitals.
- (v) Territorial Staff of Forest Department.
- (vi) Staff of All India Radio and Doordarshan.
- (vii) Officers of Food Corporation of India
- (viii) Officers of rural branch of Commercial Banks if it is a single-officer branch (ix) Operational officers/staff of UPSC
10.3 The operational/technical staff of BSNL, MTNL, Electricity companies will be requisitioned for election duty only in unavoidable circumstances. However, they can be requisitioned to perform duty related to their department for election purpose.
10.4 Employees of Banks and LIC will be drafted on regular election duty to the minimum extent possible and only in constituencies where there is inadequate number of manpower or in emergent circumstances such as strike etc. However, they can be requisitioned to perform duty of micro observers.
10.5 The present practice of obtaining the prior approval of the High Court before engaging Judicial Officers/staff, under exceptional circumstances, for election work should continue.
