ECI guidelines on transfer of officials in election bound states including Telangana state
NEW DELHI, JUNE 2, 2023: With the elections round the corner for Mizoram, Chhatisagarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana states by this year end, the Election Commission of India has instructed that no officer connected directly with election duties should be allowed to continue in the respective district if she/he is posted in her/his home district.
Officials who completed three years in the respective district during the last four years or would be completing three years on or before December 31, 2023t in Mizoram state and January 31, 2024 in Chhatisgarh, MP, Rajasthan and Telangana states would also be not allowed to continue in the same district. The decision follows the consistent policy of the Commission that officers directly connected with conduct of elections in poll-bound State/Union Territory are not posted in their home districts or places where they have served for considerably long periods.
The EC which issued detailed guidelines relating to transfers/postings of the officials said the government should ensure that no officials of the rank of the DEO/RO/ARO/police inspectors/sub-inspectors and above should be posted back or allowed to continue in the assembly constituency/district where they were posted during the last assembly election or any by-election held thereafter.
District officers
The instructions should cover not only officers posted on specific election duties, but also district officers like ADMs, SDMs, deputy collectors/joint collectors, tahsildar, block development officer or any other officer of equal rank directly deployed for election works.
The instructions would also be applicable to police officers in different ranks who would be responsible for security arrangements or deployment of police forces in the districts at election time. Police officials posted in functional departments like computerisation, special branch, training and related wings would not be covered under the instructions but steps should be taken to ensure that officers in the rank of police sub-inspectors and above were not posted in their home district.
Noting that large number of employees would be drafted for different types of election duties, the Commission, however, said it had no intention of massive dislocation of the State machinery by large scale transfers. Hence, the transfer policy would normally be not applicable to officials who were not directly connected with elections.
Disciplinary action
Further, the Commission made clear that officers/officials against whom it had recommended disciplinary action in the past, especially those who had been charged for any lapse in any election or election related work should not be assigned any election related duty.
Similarly, no officer/official against whom criminal case was pending in any court of law should be associated with or deployed on election related duty.
In addition, the EC said transfer orders in respect of officers/officials who were engaged in the electoral roll revision work, if any during an election year should be implemented only after the final publication of electoral roll in consultation with the Chief Electoral Officer.
In case of any need for any transfer of any official due to extra ordinary reasons, prior approval of the commission was mandatory, the EC order said. The Commission has further directed that transfer/posting of all officers covered under the above instructions shall be done and compliance reports by Chief Secretary and DGP with details of action obtained from the concerned departments/offices of State Government shall be furnished to the Commission by luly 31st ,2O23. 12.
