NEW DELHI: In a major relief to defence personnel, the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to provide data of “peace stations” to the Election Commission within two days to enable them to register as voters for the Lok Sabha elections, where the poll process has not yet begun.
It also pulled up the Election Commission for its “rigid stand” that came in the way of the personnel’s right to vote and forced the commission counsel to allow relaxation of the rules. After an hour-long hearing, the Bench of Justices R M Lodha and Kurian Joseph removed a statutory bar that a service personnel should be resident of peace areas for three years along with family, and held that he can register as voter if he is posted there from January 1 and continues to remain there.
