EC may remove fake names from electoral list, rules Alld HC

Allahabad: In an important judgement, the Allahabad High Court on Friday ruled that Election Commission can remove duplicate and fake names from electoral roll till the last date of filing of nomination and has directed EC to correct electoral roll of constituency no. 56 of Ghaziabad.

The Bench comprising Chief Justice DB Bhosle and justice Yashwant Varma passed the above order while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Ajay Rajput, a resident of Ghaziabad.

Petitioner’s contention was that he is a voter in constituency no. 56 of Ghaziabad. In his constituency large number of fake and duplicate voters are included in electoral roll.

Advocates Anoop Trivedi and Saksham Srivastava appearing for petitioner argued that he had earlier sent representation to the election Commission along with documents containing details of 10,504 duplicate voters and 7,123 fake voters in his area.

He had also given details of houses in which, according to electoral roll, more than 250 voters resides in each of the house but no action has been taken by the officers on his representation till date.

Counsel for Election Commission raised preliminary objection and argued that election dates have been notified by the Commission and once it is notified a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) is not maintainable.

The Bench refused to accept this contention and clarified that as per law voter list can be corrected till the last date of filing of nomination. Hence, Commission can make corrections even after elections have been notified.

The Court while disposing of the petition directed Election Commission to make corrections in the election roll of Assembly constituency no. 56, Ghaziabad, if any voters name appears twice in the list or if fake names have been added in the voter list.