Plea before Supreme Court seeks common electoral roll for parliamentary and assembly elections; compensation for those denied right to vote

A plea has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking a common electoral roll for parliamentary, assembly and local body polls as well compensation for those denied the right to vote due to deletion from the voters list [MG Devasahayam vs Union of India and anr]..The plea filed by several person including MG Devasahayam, a former Haryana-cadre IAS officer who has served as returning officer for several polls in the past, said that the right to vote is the most basic feature of our democracy and deprivation of the same interferes with the conduct of free and fair elections."There have been several instances where the elector reaches the polling booth only to be deprived of the right to cast a vote due to deletion of voter data from the electoral roll. This is very confusing for voters particularly in instances where their names may have been present in one electoral roll and are absent in another. Such deletions are unfortunately very frequent and notwithstanding whether such deletions are malicious or inadvertent," the petition said. The plea, therefore, sought directions to the Election Commission to appoint senior civil servants from outside the State / UT where electors' registration and deletion processes are under way, to ensure accuracy and objectivity in voters list.The petitioners also prayed that Rule 18 of the Registration Of Electors Rules, that allows confirmation of objections to inclusion in voters' lists without any inquiry, be declared unconstitutional. When the matter came up for hearing, a Bench of Justices KM Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy directed that a copy of the public interest litigation (PIL) petition be served on counsel for the Union government and the Election Commission of India (ECI). The matter will next be heard on November 21. .The petition filed through advocate Aakarsh Kamra, and settled by advocates Sarim Naved and Anshu Davar also prayed those who died during the COVID-19 pandemic may be removed from the voters' lists using available data. The petitioner contended that provisions of the Registration Of Electors Rules confer 'wide discretionary powers on the Registration Officer' to rectify errors, 'without any provision for the affected parties to be notified or heard'.Linking the Aadhaar numbers with the voter cards will not be the panacea it is being claimed to be, the plea added. The petitioners stressed that it is the paramount duty of the ECI to ensure that eligible voters are included in electoral rolls, and the prayers are all the more urgent given the upcoming Assembly polls in several States later this year. Along with Naved, advocate Kamran Javed also appeared for the petitioner. [Read order]