Andhra Pradesh High Court directs ECI to take action on involvement of volunteers in poll process

A division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court led by Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice R. Raghunandan Rao on March 13 (Wednesday) disposed of a writ petition filed by Citizens for Democracy (CfD) secretary N. Ramesh Kumar against the involvement of ward and village volunteers in the process of elections, with a direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take the necessary action.

A division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court led by Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice R. Raghunandan Rao on March 13 (Wednesday) disposed of a writ petition filed by Citizens for Democracy (CfD) secretary N. Ramesh Kumar against the involvement of ward and village volunteers in the process of elections, with a direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take the necessary action.

Advocate N. Ashwini Kumar represented the CfD which approached the High Court in February 2024, seeking curbs on the engagement of volunteers in the conduct of elections as per Section 159 of the Representation of People Act, 1951, after the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Andhra Pradesh had allegedly not acted on a memo issued by the ECI to confine the role of the volunteers to putting ink on the fingers of the voters. 

Moreover, the Chief Minister is said to have exhorted the volunteers to motivate and accompany senior citizens and old-age pensioners i.e. the beneficiaries of the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme to the polling booths and ensure that they vote for his party (YSR Congress Party). The Revenue Minister went a step further and called upon the volunteers to act as polling agents, Mr. Ramesh Kumar alleged in the petition. 

He also stated in the petition that requests to the CEO to bar the volunteers from physical disbursements of various benefits of welfare schemes and to suggest (to the government) to make alternate arrangements for bank transfers and to distribute rations without the physical presence of volunteers were not acted upon. Several YSRCP leaders have been openly calling the volunteers as ‘brand ambassadors’ of their party, he pointed out.  

These comments and inactions posed a challenge to the conduct of free and fair elections in Andhra Pradesh. Therefore, the CfD filed the petition for remedial action, insisting that failure to act on its representations promptly was in violation of the principles of natural justice and Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.