A delegation of Congress from Telangana on Wednesday represented to Chief Election Commissioner O. P. Rawat, Election Commissioner Ashok Lavana and other senior officials of the Election Commission that Legislature Secretary of Telangana had removed the names of Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and S.A. Sampath Kumar from the voters list for Rajya Sabha elections on Friday without the permission of the EC.
This was done to please the political bosses of the Secretary, the delegation led by chairman Election Commission coordination committee of Congress in Telangana, M. Shashidhar Reddy, said.
A release here said the delegation informed Mr. Rawat that the role of the Secretary as the returning officer for the elections wad defined by the EC from time to time and the authority to delete names of electors from electoral rolls was not assigned to him. This was more so after the last date for filing nominations and scrutiny. In fact, their names figured in the list of voters on the last day.
The Secretary could not usurp the powers of the EC under Article 324 of the Constitution. It was a challenge to the supremacy of the Commission.
The action of the returning officer was unbecoming of a government employee as he was expected to act only under the authority of the EC. There were serious doubts about his conduct, character, integrity, honesty and unbiased nature as he had abrogated for himself powers of the EC. The delegation recalled interim direction of the High Court to the EC not to take further steps for six weeks, pending consideration of the legality of the expulsion and gazette notification in the matter. The members would lost their constitutional right to vote if the petition before the High Court was upheld ultimately.
After a patient hearing, Mr. Rawat assured the delegation that a decision will be taken before the polling.
