Sagarkumar Mutha | TNN | Dec 19, 2015, 07.05 AM IST
| HYDERABAD: In a startling disclosure that might have a bearing on the upcoming civic polls, the Election Commission of India on Friday told the Hyderabad High Court that Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) authorities had indeed deleted names of 6.1 lakh voters and plan to delete eight lakh more categorized as "duplicate." |
Election Commission counsel Avinash Desai told Justice C V Nagarjuna Reddy, who was hearing the case, that the deletion of duplicate votes will be done only after GHMC elections to avoid any further controversy now.
Justice Reddy questioned as to why such an exercise was not taken up and completed much earlier. "Is it difficult for the EC to detect duplicate votes well in advance?" he asked.
The revelations were made by the EC counsel in response to pleas by Congress party's GHMC OBC cell chairman Nagesh Mudiraj and TDP leader Feroze Khan -- who had challenged the deletion of over six lakh voters within GHMC purview on various grounds.
Justice Reddy said that the EC should not take sides and should have taken an unbiased stand. The petitioners contended that the officials are hastening the process of determining ward reservations for Backward Castes without realising that the deletion exercise will result in change of composition of the city's population.
Ravi Sankar Jandhyala, the counsel for one of the petitioners, told the court that GHMC authorities are preparing to delete 7.9 lakh more voters on the ground that they are 'duplicates'.
Desai, the EC counsel, told the court that they have received communication from the commission that the authorities have deleted 6.30 lakh votes due to various reasons like shifting of residences, change of address etc. However, following appeals by voters, the officials have restored 20,000 votes.
To a question by the judge, the EC counsel confirmed that this means as many as 6.1 lakh votes were officially deleted. Responding to the allegations on plans to delete eight lakh votes, Avinash furnished to the court a communication he received from the Central Commission in which it was said that the deletion of 7.90 lakh voters that were found with duplicate names will be taken up only after the GHMC elections.
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Explaining their case on duplicate voters, the EC counsel said that there are instances where there are voters registered as Jagannath J and J Jagannath. "One Jagannath is a duplicate vote and we have decided not to delete even such votes till the GHMC elections," Avinash said.
Petitioner's counsel Jandhyala also found fault with the authorities for allowing the staff to go ahead with the process of linking Aadhaar card with voter identity cards. "This is resulting in several problems and that was precisely the reason why the Supreme Court had declared such an exercise an illegal one and directed the authorities not to go ahead with it," he said. "But despite this, the officials here are linking Aadhaar cards with voter cards," he added.
The judge appreciated the petitioners and their counsel for questioning the deletions and bringing in awareness on the issue. "Instead of groping in dark, you did a good thing. Now there is some clarity. Some got their votes restored. Some clarity has come on the total number of votes that were deleted. And also a decision not to delete seven lakh more votes too was taken by the authorities," the judge added.