Section 71: Offences in respect of ballot boxes

71. Offences in respect of ballot boxes (1) Every person who— (a) forges or counterfeits, or fraudulently defaces or destroys, a ballot paper or the official mark on a ballot paper; (b) without due authority supplies a ballot paper to any person; (c) fraudulently puts into a ballot box any paper other than the ballot paper which he is authorised by law to put in; (d) fraudulently takes out of the polling station a ballot paper; or (e) without due authority destroys, takes, opens, or otherwise interferes with, a ballot box or packet of ballot papers then in use for the purposes of an election, shall commit an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable in the case of a returning officer, or presiding officer, or clerk employed at a polling station, to a fine not exceeding 2,000 rupees and to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years and, in any other case, to a fine not exceeding 500 rupees and to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months. (2) In any information or prosecution for an offence in relation to the ballot boxes, ballot papers and other things in use at an election, the property in such ballot boxes, ballot papers or things may be stated to be vested in the returning officer at such election. R20 – 31 [Issue 1] Representation of the People Act