New Delhi. The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a petition challenging the order of the Chhattisgarh High Court in which the petition of a 78-year-old bedridden woman was rejected. The elderly woman had requested the High Court to direct her to issue postal ballot paper to cast her vote in the Lok Sabha elections.
The woman had initially filed a petition before the High Court, seeking a direction to issue her a postal ballot, taking into account her age and ailments, to cast her vote in the Bilaspur constituency. Voting on this seat was held on May 7. On April 29, the High Court allowed him to apply before the concerned returning officer and directed the authority to consider his claim as per law.
On Monday, the woman’s lawyer told the vacation bench of Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice Pankaj Mithal that as per the April 29 order of the High Court, she had applied to the returning officer for issue of postal ballot.
Senior advocate Gaurav Aggarwal, appearing in the court on behalf of the woman, said that the returning officer rejected her application on May 1.
He said, “The returning officer said that your (petitioner) physical disability is not more than 40 percent, therefore I will not allow you to cast your vote (through postal ballot). This is the essence of the order.” Aggarwal said the woman again approached the High Court, which rejected her application on May 6 citing the polling date as May 7 and the instructions issued by the Election Commission regarding the issue and collection of postal ballots. Cannot be completed in 24 hours. The woman had approached the apex court challenging the High Court order of May 6. The Supreme Court said that this petition had become meaningless because the date of voting was May 7.