Supreme Court Refuses To Entertain PIL Seeking Deletion Of Duplicate Voter Names In Electoral Rolls

The Supreme Court on Monday (November 25) refused to entertain a Public Interest Litigation seeking the deletion of duplicate voter names appearing on electoral rolls.

The PIL addresses the issue of duplicity of voter names on electoral rolls. The petitioner sought the direction to the Union of India and the Election Commission of India (ECI) to delete the multiplicity of names appearing in the registered voter list.

The bench of CJI Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar disinclined to entertain the petition, verbally observed that the matter required complex policy considerations at the grass root level.

'It's basically the district level officer- the state level officer who has to do it. You have to give details, each district wise- it will be impossible for us to see" the CJI said.

The Court dismissed the petition noting that the issues involved would fall under the domain of public policy:

" We are not inclined to entertain the omnibus writ petition filed under Article 32 as there might be local as well as state wise issues involved."

The bench however granted liberty to the petitioner to make representation before the concerned authorities and then approach the High Court to seek appropriate remedies.

Notably, the bench of former CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra in February closed similar proceedings relating to the issue of duplication of names in electoral rolls. The bench noted that there existed adequate measures for the aggrieved voters to approach the Registration Officer in the event of any error or deletion of their names in the voters' list.

The main reliefs sought by the petitioner includes:

(i) Issue a writ of Certiorari or any other writ, order or direction thereby calling for the entire record of the duplicate/multiple entries of voters' name in the voter lists maintained by the respondents, for perusal;

(ii) Issue a writ of Mandamus or any other writ, order or direction thereby directing the respondents to carry out the exercise of deleting the duplication/multiplication entries of voters' names from the voter lists, as mandated by Section 22 of the Representation of People Act, 1950 and letter dated 11.08.2023 issued by the Election Commission of India, immediately and in any case, within a period of thirty (30) days.

(iii) Issue a writ of Mandamus or any other writ, order or direction thereby constituting a Special Investigating Team (SIT) headed by a Retired Judge of this Hon'ble Court to probe into the cases of bulk duplication/multiplication entries of voters' names in the voter lists inserted in an organized and calculated manner and to supervise the exercise of correcting the voter lists by deleting the names of voters entered into the voter-lists, in terms of letter dated 11.08.2023 issued by the Election Commission of India and thereafter, to submit a report to this Hon'ble Court for further action/direction.

(iv) Any other writ/order or direction, as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper, may also be issued under the facts and circumstances of the case and in the interest of justice.

The PIL has been filed with the assistance of AOR Avadh Bihar Kaushik.

Case Details : RASHTRAWADI ADARSH MAHASANGH vs. UNION OF INDIA| Diary No. - 53278/2024

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