Key Points
New Delhi:Taking note of the Election Commission of Indias (ECIs) submission that voters are to be duly intimated before deleting their names from the electoral rolls, the Supreme Court (SC) Friday disposed of a petition challenging the constitutional validity of a provision which allows deletion of eligible voters without notice or opportunity to be heard by the affected citizen...
The order was passed on a petition filed by three former bureaucrats M.G. Devasahayam, Somasundar Burra, and Aditi Mehta demanding, among other things, that Rule 18 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, be declared unconstitutional, as it allows for deletion of voter data without notice or an opportunity to be heard by the affected citizen...
While the court did not declare Rule 18 unconstitutional, advocate Sarim Naved, advocate for the petitioners told ThePrint, In terms of the Supreme Court order, in which, the election commissions 2013 letter has been approved and given the imprimatur (approval)of the court, it is clear that notice has to be issued in all cases where a persons name has to be deleted from the electoral roll...
In its order, the Supreme Court asserted that Rule 18 has to be read along with 1960 Rules numbers 16 (registration officer to exhibit copies of list of objections on a notice board), 17 (rejection of claims and objections not lodged within the specific period or in the form and manner provided), 19 (notice of hearing claims and objections), 20 (inquiry into claims and objections), 21 (inclusion of names inadvertently omitted), 21A (deletion of names) and 22 (final publication of roll)...
The petition then alleged, The systems and procedures presently in place enable voter data deletion and manipulation without so much as a Notice to the citizen whose name is being struck off the electoral roll or even allowing him an opportunity to be heard.. If certain populations are excluded from electoral rolls because of their social and economic disadvantage, it amounts to their disenfranchisement and the denial to them of their most fundamental right in a democracy, namely to cast their vote during general, state, municipal and panchayat elections, the petition asserted...
