Ensure Permanent Ramps At Routinely Notified Polling Booths, Make Websites Disabled-Friendly: Madras High Court To Election Commission

The Madras High Court recently directed the Election Commission of India to ensure that the schools and public buildings, which are usually notified as polling booths for elections, should be made wheelchair accessible by constructing permanent ramps. The bench of Chief Justice SA Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan also directed the ECI to take steps to make sure that its website was made easily accessible and usable by persons with disabilities. “The respondents are directed to ensure that permanent ramps are constructed in the routinely notified polling booths, particularly in the educational institutions and public buildings, in strict compliance with the provisions of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. The Election Commission shall take expeditious and effective steps to ensure completing the process of making their websites easily accessible and usable by the persons with disabilities,” the court said. The court was hearing a plea seeking to ensure that all polling stations are accessible to persons with disabilities and all information provided through the websites of the ECI is also accessible to persons with disabilities. The petitioner submitted that, as per Section 11 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016, the ECI and the State Election Commissions was to ensure that all polling stations were accessible to persons with disabilities and all materials related to the electoral process was easily understandable and accessible to them. It was further submitted that even after the enforcement of the legislation and repeated requests, neither the polling booths were accessible nor was the information available in the websites free from barriers. The petitioner pointed out that in the websites maintained by the ECI, only a single image-based CAPTCHA verification was available instead of multimodal CAPTCHA's including audio, text, logic, OTP, etc. It was submitted that the ECI's websites were not in compliance with the mandatory Guideline for Indian Government Websites (GIGW) norms. The petitioner had thus sought directions to ensure that the polling booths to be designated for the elections contained all facilities mentioned by the Commission itself in its document titled "Assured Minimum Facilities", to ensure that the design of the facility complied with the specifications and space standards mandated by the Harmonised Guidelines and Standards for Universal Accessibility in India 2021. The ECI submitted that it had already issued directions to all State authorities for providing facilities to persons with disabilities, including putting up permanent ramps in all polling booths. It was submitted that pursuant to the directions, the ECI was ensuring that all facilities were being provided and any defects or shortfalls, which were brought to the notice of the Commission, would also be taken note of and suitably dealt with. With respect to the information on the website, the ECI submitted that a request had already been made to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to conduct an audit of ECI websites and applications as per GIGW 3.0 and WCAG 2.1 guidelines. The State also submitted that the directions issued by the ECI was being carried out in letter and spirit and even in the recent election, the Chief Secretary had convened a meeting with all District Authorities to ensure that all the facilities were in place, including provision of ramps in all polling booths. The Additional Government Pleader, Puducherry also informed the court that all required facilities providing easy access to persons with disabilities were made during the elections and all instructions issued by the ECI in this regard were complied with. The court noted that in spite of the directions issued by the Supreme Court and various guidelines issued by the ECI from time to time, most educational institutions and public buildings which are routinely notified as polling booths did not contain permanent ramps. The court added that though temporary ramps were put up just before the elections, there were several problems and shortfalls every time. The court thus directed the ECI to ensure that permanent ramps are constructed in the buildings in compliance with the provisions of the Act. Counsel for Petitioner: Mr. A. Yogeshwaran Counsel for Respondent: Mr. Niranjan Rajagopalan Standing Counsel, Mr. P. S. Raman Advocate General Assisted by Mr. A. Edwin Prabakar State Government Pleader, Mr. V. Vasanthakumar Additional Government Pleader Case Title: Vaishnavi Jayakumar v The Election Commission of India and Others Citation: 2026 LiveLaw (Mad) 213 Case No: W.P. No.34815 of 2025Click Here To Read/Download The Judgment

Ensure Permanent Ramps At Routinely Notified Polling Booths, Make Websites Disabled-Friendly: Madras High Court To Election Commission

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Ensure Permanent Ramps At Routinely Notified Polling Booths, Make Websites Disabled-Friendly: Madras High Court To Election Commission

Upasana Sajeev

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