Challenged votes — the ₹2 question is settled
Rajasthan ULB General Election 2026 · Balotra · from the Commission's own training deck
✅ This file unblocks something
For days this was the project's biggest open question — "when is the ₹2 challenge deposit forfeited?" — and the answer was waiting on the DEO.
🚨 The answer was already inside the Commission's own DLMT training deck.
3-Polling Party PPT-2.pdf, slides 51–53 — I read all three page images myself (the deck is Kruti-Dev encoded; I did not trust the decode, I opened the pages).
1. 🔴 Three sources — two agree, one stands apart
| Source | What it says | Nature |
|---|---|---|
| Rule 43(5) (Municipalities Election Rules 1994) | forfeit if the challenge is frivolous or not made in good faith; in any other case → return | 🟢 the law |
| 🆕 The Commission's DLMT deck — PP2 slide 53, items 12 and 13 | the same — forfeit if frivolous/bad faith; if the challenge is proved, the fee is returned | 🟢 the Commission's own training material |
| Margdarsika, chapter 6(2) para 3 | "challenge found correct → forfeit" | 🔴 stands alone |
✅ Conclusion — and this is no longer inference
The rule and the Commission's own training deck say the same thing. The Margdarsika's box agrees with neither.
➡ Teach: rule 43(5) = deck items 12 and 13
⚠️ This is not a claim that "the Margdarsika is wrong" — it is the statement that that box stands apart from both the rule and the Commission's own deck, and in any conflict the rule prevails. 🔵 Send it to the DEO for the record — but training is no longer held up by it.
2. 🚨 The full procedure — the deck's fourteen steps (slides 51–53, read first-hand)
How a challenge starts
| Step | What |
|---|---|
| 1 | The voter reaches Polling Officer 1, who confirms identity and reads the entries aloud |
| 2 | At that moment any polling agent may challenge the identity |
| 3 | The polling officer sends that voter to the Presiding Officer |
| 4 | 🔴 The PRO shall not accept the challenge until the challenger deposits ₹2 in cash |
| 5 | On receiving it the PRO issues a receipt in the form prescribed at Annexure-13 |
The inquiry
| Step | What |
|---|---|
| 6 | Explain to the challenged person the penalty for impersonation |
| 7 | Read the roll entry out in full and ask whether he is that elector |
| 8 | 🔴 Enter the voter's name and address in Form 13 and take signature/thumb impression. If he refuses, do not permit him to vote |
| 9 | The Presiding Officer holds a summary inquiry |
The decision — and this is where the money is decided
| Step | Situation | Vote | What happens to the ₹2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | The challenger cannot produce prima facie evidence | ✅ let him vote | (second sentence of step 12 applies — below) |
| 11 | The challenger does establish prima facie that this is not that elector | — | ask the voter for rebuttal evidence |
| 12 | The voter produces evidence and proves his claim is correct | ✅ permit him to vote | 🔴 if the challenge was frivolous or not made in good faith → forfeit the fee, and write "forfeited" on the receipt counterfoil |
| 13 | The voter cannot prove his claim → the challenge is treated as proved | ❌ | 🟢 the challenge fee shall be returned — take acknowledgement on the counterfoil, then hand the money back |
| 14 | That voter | ❌ barred from voting | handed to the police officer on duty, with a letter to the SHO (Annexure-9) |
🎯 Two sentences — say exactly these in class
1. "The money is forfeited when the challenge turns out to be frivolous or in bad faith." 2. "When the challenge turns out to be right — the voter cannot prove his claim — the money is returned."
🚨 Notice that this feels backwards, which is exactly why it gets taught wrong. The deposit exists to penalise a false challenger, not to reward a correct one — hence forfeit on a false challenge, return on a true one.
3. 📋 What to write on the receipt counterfoil
| Outcome | On the counterfoil |
|---|---|
| Frivolous / bad faith | write "forfeited" |
| Challenge proved | take acknowledgement, return the money, and record it |
Annexure-13's counterfoil itself says "under rule 43(5)" — which points the same way as the rule and the deck.
4. ✅ Where it lands in the diary and Form 14-ग
| Where | What |
|---|---|
| Diary item 13 | challenged votes — number allowed / number rejected |
| Form 14-ग | a voter not permitted to vote — item 4 (rules 35-A/37-A) |
| Annexure-9 | letter to the SHO (in the step-14 situation) |
5. 🚨 What changed for training
| Before | Now |
|---|---|
| 🔴 "Do not state either rule as final until the DEO answers in writing" | ✅ Teach rule 43(5) = deck items 12–13 |
| B1 was a blocker before training | 🔵 now for the record only — inform the DEO |
| The Margdarsika box was an open contradiction | 🔴 it is now the outlier, against both the rule and the deck |
Source: the Commission's DLMT training deck — 3-Polling Party PPT-2.pdf, slides 51, 52, 53,
all three read as page images, first-hand (23.08.2026) · rule 43(5) · Annexure-13
Hindi parallel: आक्षेपित मत / चैलेन्ज वोट — ₹2 की राशि का प्रश्न सुलझ गया
Related: DEO_QUESTIONS_en · Stale and defective citations in the official sources — a single register ·
Worked specimen forms — for the Presiding Officer · बालोतरा जिला — प्रशिक्षण पैक