The Madras High Court on Friday, March 22, 2024, said that though voting is a duty cast upon the electorate, no one could compel a person to vote if he/she chose not to exercise such a valuable right despite availing of a paid holiday on polling day under Section 135B of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
The observations were made during the hearing of a public interest litigation which sought a direction to the Central and State government as well as the Election Commission of India to ensure that employers grant a paid holiday on the day of polling only if employees submitted proof of having exercised their franchise.
When the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy asked the petitioner’s lawyer, what if an employee was willing to work on polling day instead of voting but he could not do so because of the establishment remaining shut, the counsel had no answer.
