With the terms of the existing Legislative Assembly of Karnataka due to expire on May 24, 2023, the Election Commission of India (EC) has issued guidelines on transfer/posting of officers and directed the State government not to post officers directly connected with conduct of elections to his or her home district.
Officers who completed three years in one district during the last four years or completed three years as on May 31, 2023, should not be allowed to continue in that district, including promotion period in that district, said EC.
These instructions would cover not only officers appointed for specific election duties, but also district officers such as ADMs, SDMs, deputy collector/joint collector, tehsildar, block development officers, or any other officer of equal rank directly deployed for election works.
The instructions would also be applicable to the police department officers. Police sub-inspectors and above rank officers should not be posted in their home district. Police officials who are posted in functional departments like computerisation, special branch, training, etc. are not covered under these instructions.
The transfer policy is not applicable to officers posted in the State headquarters of the department concerned and officers who are not directly connected with elections like doctors, engineers, teachers/principals etc., said a release.
The EC said that no officer against whom a criminal case is pending in any court of law be associated with/deployed on election-related duty. Any officer, who is due to retire within the coming six months, will be exempted from the purview of the Commission’s directions. And such retiring officers need not be transferred out of the district.
