PIL In SC Demanding Common Electoral Rolls, Sunday Elections And Voter Registration At Post Offices [Read Petition]

A PIL has been filed before the Supreme Court demanding a direction to the Centre and the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take appropriate steps to use Common Electoral Rolls for Parliament, State Assembly and Local Body Elections.

The Petition, filed by Delhi based Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, emphasizes on the lack of a uniform law or procedure for State Election Commission to prepare electoral rolls and submits, “There is a non-uniformity of practice amongst States, which causes duplication of essentially same task between the two different constitutional bodies i.e. the Election Commission and State Election Commissions that entails the same effort and huge expenditure again by the States. In addition, it also creates confusion amongst the voters, particularly the rural citizens, since they may find their names present in one roll, but absent in another.”

Mr. Upadhyay also seeks ascertainment of the feasibility of using Post Offices as the nodal agency for voter registration and verification. It contends that this would not only resolve the issue of duplication and confusion but will also aid in saving huge amounts of public money and manpower.

“That voter registration flaws can be corrected to a large extent by making process open verifiable and accessible to citizens. Keeping in mind especially the rural populace, petitioner is suggesting that citizen friendly neighborhood post office can be made nodal agency for voter registration. Post Offices as a nodal agency can be used for display and sale of rolls for local polling stations, sale of statutory forms, receipt and verification of application for addition and deletions and assistance to the ECI during revision of rolls by verifying address,” it submits in this regard.

Further, pointing out that in several countries elections are held on Sundays so as to enable maximum voters to participate, the Petition demands an assessment of the practicability of this suggestion for India.

The use of a Totalizer has also been recommended, submitting that it can count the votes of 14 EVMs simultaneously, thereby ensuring the secrecy of votes during counting and “preventing the disclosure of voting patterns and countering fears of intimidation and victimization”.