The High Court of Karnataka has said that poll officials or Returning Officers do not have the jurisdiction to undertake search and seizure operations before the announcement of elections.
The order was recently passed by the Single-Judge Bench of Justice M. Nagaprasanna, which observed that merely because they were appointed as officers for the conduct of elections, they could not use the power before the declaration of polls.
The High Court passed the order on a petition filed by one Ishtiyak Ahmed, seeking a direction to release 530 bags of rice seized from him by election officials.
Ahmed claimed that he was a well-known social worker, who actively engaged in charitable activities such as food distribution.
The plea contended that on March 19, 2023, a Returning Officer, accompanied by a Police Inspector, seized 530 bags of rice from him. The petitioner said he submitted a justification in response to the notice issued to him the following day, but the rice bags were not returned to him.
Appearing for the petitioner, Advocate Syed Ummer said that he had been distributing rice to the ones in need on all festivals of the year for the past 15 years. He argued that the officials could not have seized the bags as they had no jurisdiction to do so, and sought a direction for their release.
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