Yes, at Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, if you are employed by a business or other establishment and registered to vote in a constituency that is polling. Section 135B of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 gives you the day off, and your employer may not cut your pay for it.
The right does not depend on your employer’s leave policy, or on your state declaring a public holiday.
What Section 135B says
It covers anyone employed in a business, trade, industrial undertaking or other establishment who is entitled to vote at the election.
No wages may be deducted, and someone not normally paid for such a day must still get what they would have earned.
An employer who breaks either rule can be fined up to ₹500. The section provides for a holiday, not an hour or two off to vote.
The duty falls on employers, so the section does nothing for the self-employed. Neither the Act nor the Commission’s 2026 letters say whether it covers domestic workers in private homes, or gig workers whom a platform treats as partners rather than employees.
The exception
The section does not apply to a voter whose absence may cause “danger or substantial loss” in the job they are employed in.
Neither the Act nor the Commission’s 2026 letters list the jobs it covers. If your employer relies on it, ask why in writing, and for time to vote.
Casual workers, shift workers and by-elections
The Election Commission’s letters to the states before the April 2026 Assembly elections and by-elections confirm that the holiday covers:
- Employees of establishments and shops, including shift workers.
- Daily-wage and casual workers employed by an establishment, who are owed the day’s wages too.
- By-elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly seats, as well as general elections.
Section 135B names only Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, not panchayat and municipal polls or Legislative Council elections. For those, check what your state announces.
If you work outside your constituency
The holiday follows your registration, not your workplace. The Commission’s letters make clear that voters who work outside the constituency where they are registered, casual workers included, are entitled to it under the Act.
Puducherry’s Labour Department applied this across state lines in March 2026, telling employers there to give staff who were voters in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu or West Bengal a paid holiday on their own state’s polling day.
Your day off is your constituency’s polling day, not your workplace’s. See also voting when you live away from home.
A paid holiday is not a public holiday
State governments often also declare a public polling day holiday under Section 25 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881, read with a 1957 Home Ministry notification.
West Bengal’s order of 14 September 2026, for two Assembly by-elections, shows the difference. It gave a public holiday only to government offices, public bodies and educational institutions in those constituencies, and had the Labour Department tell shops and businesses to give workers a paid one.
If you work for a private business, your right comes from Section 135B, whether or not a public holiday is declared.
If your employer refuses
Recent state orders have told the Labour Department to instruct employers to give the holiday, and in some states to make sure they do. Section 135B does not name a complaint route, but you can report a refusal to:
- Your state’s Labour Department or district labour office.
- The District Election Officer, who supervises all election work in the district.
- The voter helpline, 1950, which the Commission asks voters to use for election-related complaints.
The fine sits in the Act’s chapter on electoral offences. See also how to report an electoral offence.
Before polling day
- Check your constituency’s polling date and find your polling booth.
- Tell your employer in writing, well ahead, and keep a copy of your electoral roll entry.
- If you are refused, get it in writing, or note who refused and when.
- Take an accepted identity document with you.
Polling hours are fixed for each election and by law must total at least eight hours. Our first-time voter guide walks through the booth.
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