The Karnataka High Court recently observed that election officials do not have any jurisdiction to search or seize any material before polls are announced. The bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna said merely because they are appointed as officers for conducting elections, they cannot use the said power before polls are declared.
“After the declaration of elections, the entire domain will be open but not till then,” Justice Nagaprasanna observed. The single judge bench was hearing a petition filed by Isthiyak Ahmed, who claimed that the returning officer and a police inspector visited his house on March 19, around 11.20 am and seized 530 bags of rice weighing 25 kg each.
According to the plea, though a notice was issued to the petitioner, who had submitted his justification on March 20, the rice bags were not returned to him.
The counsel for the petitioner argued that Ahmed, a prominent social worker involved in charitable activities, was distributing rice and clothes to the needy in his area, on all festivals like Ugadi, Ramzan, Dussehra, Christmas among others; the rice bags were being stored at his residence for this purpose. The counsel for the petitioner contended that the officials could not have seized the rice as they had no jurisdiction to do so.
The counsel for the Election Commission argued that the petitioner had hoarded rice for distributing it to gain votes in the election.
The bench observed that when the seizure took place, the Karnataka assembly elections were yet to be notified; they were later declared on March 29. The court further said the day after the seizure, the petitioner had produced all the bills for the purchase of the rice bags from the APMC yard. The petitioner had also brought to the notice of the officials that he was doing this for the past 15 years on all festivals of all religions, the court added.
The HC also observed that the seizure is to be exercised by the authority/officers under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, under normal circumstances.
“The returning officer and the police inspector, who have conducted the search in the case at hand, were not vested with such authority and their action is, therefore, illegal,” the court held.
It issued a mandamus to the respondents to release the seized rice bags to petitioner’s custody with the rider that he should abide by conditions determined by the court.
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