Explain non-use of voters’ I-card, HC tells EC

The Bench was hearing a public interest petition filed by Harshanker Gupta seeking a direction to the CEC for making the use of the I-cards mandatory during the coming elections and revision of the capital’s voters lists as there were instances of duplicity of names and bogus voters.

The court asked the Commission to furnish the electoral rolls of Timarpur Assembly constituency where the names of about 7000 of the one lakh voters are alleged to be duplicated, raisingpossibility of bogus voting in the coming polls.

The Bench directed the Commission to furnish the rolls by November eleven.

When pointed out about a Supreme Court order which had stated that all cases related to voters I-cards pending in any court should be transferred to it, the Bench asked the Commission to place a copy of the order by the next date.

Commission Secretary K J Rao in his reply to the court’s direction stated that a random spot verification of second electoral rolls of 7000 people along with 109 pending cases of the first list of Timarpur constituency established that only 274 names were found to be duplicated which were subsequently deleted.

However, petitioner’s counsel Rajiv Sharma submitted a list of 7000 voters who he claimed were duplicate even after the updated electoral roll was issued on January one, 1998.

Justice Singh agreeing with the contention of the petitioner, observed, “the duplicity of electoral roll would not be a matter of surprise. During the past two elections,my name was missing from the voters’ list.”

It was not included even after informing the Commission, he added.

The petitioner urged the court to issue directions to the Commission to ensure identification of voters through I-cards during the coming polls as about 80 per cent of the electorate were having photo I-cards.

He further urged the court to constitute a separate identification mechanism for the remaining 20 per cent electorate which does not have I-cards.

The Commission counsel said the matter regarding usage of the photo I-card was pending before the apex court as some states had challenged the Commission’s direction for mandatory use of I-cards in elections, issued in 1994.

States like Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa filed petitions in their respective high courts against the Commission’s orders he said, adding that their main contention was that they do not have funds for preparation of I-cards.