Chennai: The Madras High Court has sought a detailed explanation from the Election Commission of India (ECI) on a public interest litigation (PIL) alleging that many polling stations and official websites remain inaccessible to persons with disabilities, undermining their fundamental right to vote.
The First Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan, directed ECI standing counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan to file a reply within four weeks.
The judges stressed that the petition should not be viewed as an adversarial fight but as an effort to secure equality in the electoral process.
The PIL was moved by cross-disability rights activist Vaishnavi Jayakumar, who submitted that despite repeated reminders and statutory mandates, accessibility continues to remain inadequate. Her counsel, S. Tanvi, produced photographs showing polling stations with steps but no ramps.
The Bench, while observing the photos, asked how disabled persons could be expected to cast their vote in such conditions.
“You (ECI) may have taken steps toward inclusivity, but these physical barriers must be removed completely,” Chief Justice Shrivastava remarked.
In her affidavit, Jayakumar invoked Section 11 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, which mandates that all polling stations be made fully accessible and all election-related materials simplified for persons with disabilities.
She said that though the Act has been in force for more than seven years, full compliance has not been achieved.
Polling booths continue to lack basic facilities like ramps, and election websites remain unfriendly to disabled users, she argued.
The petition specifically highlighted that the ECI’s portals — www.eci.gov.in, https://electoralsearch.eci.gov.in, https://voters.eci.gov.in and officials.eci.gov.in — rely only on image-based CAPTCHA, preventing many visually impaired persons from accessing them. Multi-modal CAPTCHA, including audio, text, logic and OTP-based options, must be introduced, the petition said.
Jayakumar urged the Commission to ensure barrier-free elections through simple measures such as making candidate information available in accessible formats online and ensuring ramps at every polling station.
The Bench directed the ECI to address all these concerns in detail and make clear what concrete steps it plans to take. The matter has been posted for further hearing after the Commission files its reply.
(IANS)
