Court dismisses plea on irregularities in electoral rolls

GANDHINAGAR - The Gujarat High Court Tuesday disposed as “infructuous” a public suit alleging irregularities in the voters list for the local bodies elections and challenging the e-voting system introduced by the government, noting that the polls had already been held.

A bench of Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya and Justice Anant Dave said elections have already been held and hence the plea of directing the state government to hold election on revised voters’ list has become infructuous. On the issue of the e-voting system, the court ruled that already PILs have been filed challenging it and the issue would be judged.

The court had earlier issued notices to the state election commission and others following the PIL by Siddharth Patel, the then president of Congress’ state unit, alleging serious irregularities in the electoral roll prepared for the civic and local self governance bodies’ elections.

Claiming that a large number of voters’ names were duplicated in as many as seven constituencies, the Congress leader also alleged that same names and Election Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) number were duplicated in more than one constituency.

He had claimed that the electoral roll which was the basic document, on which the electoral process is founded, was defective and thus holding free and fair election would be frustrated.

Patel had also raised objections on e-voting system to be introduced in the civic bodies’ elections. He claimed that in light of the evident irregularities in current voters’ list, the system of e-voting could be defrauded and hence it could not be considered trustworthy.