Defence Personnel Can Vote From Peace Stations: SC

Supreme Court on Monday said that defence personnel posted at peace stations, who are not registered as voters, could now exercise their franchise and enrol themselves, ahead of general elections starting next month.

The top court directed the election commission to register the defence personnel as voters from their area of posting.

However, petitioner, Neena Gokhale, said the direction was only for personnel stationed at peace stations and modalities for border areas are yet to be worked out.

"At the moment it will only apply to the peace stations, which has been clarified by the court because all the modalities for border areas have to be worked out, which is fair enough. And then the court has directed the matter to be finally heard, after the proceedings are completed by a three judge bench," said Gokhale.

A bench headed by Justice R.M. Lodha, taking on record a statement by the election commission, said a statutory bar that security personnel should be resident of peace areas for three years along with his family would not be applicable for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The personnel should be posted at the peace station from January 1st , 2014 and continue to be so to qualify as a voter. However, this will not impact the voters list in 225 constituencies where the election process has already started.