Supreme Court Questions Poll Body On Removing Electoral Rolls Entries

The Supreme Court today sought responses from the Election Commission and others on a plea which alleged that the poll panel had suo motu deleted 46 lakh entries from electoral rolls in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in 2015.

The plea, challenging the April order passed by the Telangana High Court, which had said it does not find any reason to grant the reliefs sought in the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed before it on the issue, came up for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha.

"Issue notice," the bench said while agreeing to hear the matter.

Besides the poll panel, the bench has sought responses from the Centre, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and the respective state election commission of both the states.

It posted the matter for hearing after six weeks.

The plea, filed in the top court by Hyderabad resident Srinivas Kodali, claimed that in an effort to 'purify' electoral rolls, the EC in 2015 had suo motu deleted 46 lakh entries from the electoral rolls in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and linked the electors photo identity card (EPIC) with Aadhaar.

It said the poll panel had also seeded EPIC data with the state resident data hub and allowed the state governments to access and copy EPIC data.

The plea said the petitioner had filed a PIL before the high court apprehending that millions of unsuspecting voters would be unable to vote during the then upcoming state elections in December 2018.

"Three years later, the high court dismissed the PIL ostensibly because it 'was filed in the year 2018 and much water has flown down the Ganges'," it claimed.

The plea alleged that the EC's action to 'purify' electoral rolls, using an automated process; from data received from Aadhaar and state governments; and without proper notice or consent from the voters is a "blatant infringement on the right to vote". It claimed that the high court had refused to consider that the EC deployed an "undisclosed software" to identify duplicate, dead and shifted voters.

"Likewise, second, the high court failed to consider that the ECI facilitated voter profiling by creating electronic linkages between voter records and sensitive personal data held in state-owned databases," the plea alleged.

It claimed that voting rights of millions of voters in the two states were deprived without due process and the poll panel's actions "threatens the sanctity and integrity of elections". 

"In sum, the ECI abdicated its constitutional duty under Article 324 and statutory obligation under the Representation of the People Act, 1950 to prepare electoral rolls without the aid or assistance from the government or electronic databases under their control," the plea alleged. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)