Daily Times

The Supreme Court (SC) has said that a returning officer (RO) must scrutinize all nomination papers submitted to him, in the best interest of justice and to uphold the fundamental right of any individual to contest elections.

“Returning Officers must remember that it is a fundamental right of an individual to contest elections and if they sabotage an individual not only do they rob the individual of their fundamental right but they also rob the populace at large of voting for that individual, which is also a fundamental right protected by the Constitution,” said an 11-page detailed judgment authored by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan regarding the acceptance of the nomination papers of a candidate, Shaukat Mahmood.

A three-judge bench led by Justice Munib Akhtar heard the matter.

The detailed judgment noted that ROs are an integral part of the electoral process and it is highly unbecoming of them to exercise the authority conferred upon them in a manner that sabotages the electoral process.

“We have carefully perused the one-page notification multiple times, and in any of those instances have not come across any official “office hours.” With due respect to the Returning Officer, if the ECP has fixed the last date for scrutiny of nomination papers as 30.12.2023, the Returning Officer has no right to determine the cut-off period on 30.12.2023 or what “office hours” he or she will operate until on the last date, i.e. 30.12.2023. In our view, until the clock strikes midnight on 30.12.2023 or whatever the last date of the scrutiny of nomination paper may be for any future election, the Returning Officer must scrutinize all nomination papers submitted to him, in the best interest of justice and to uphold the fundamental right of any individual to contest elections,” the statement read.

Justice Irfan Saadat Khan also said, “Elections are the bedrock of a democracy; and as the 16th President of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln, once said, elections belong to the people. Therefore, it is essential that those wishing to contest elections be facilitated as far as is legally permissible. It goes without saying that it is against democratic norms and principles to add technical bottlenecks in the way of any individual, who is a citizen of this country, trying to contest elections. And in this backdrop, it is pertinent to say that electoral laws and rules cannot be used as an arbitrary filtering mechanism, dependent on the whims of a Returning Officer. Therefore, a Returning Officer should exercise the discretional powers available to him in a rational and meticulous manner.”