The Supreme Court on Thursday sought the response of the Election Commission of India on separate petitions filed by Congress leaders Sachin Pilot and Kamal Nath highlighting that lakhs of voters have been found to be fake and that only a small portion of VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) units have arrived so far in the run-up to the forthcoming Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
A Bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and Ashok Bhushan issued notice to the Commission, which the petitions said was the “watchdog of free and fair elections”
Mr. Nath and Mr. Pilot, both represented by advocate Varun K. Chopra, said the Commission is “duty-bound to circumvent the pressure and ascertain that ensuing elections are free from any impediments in order to uphold the democratic sanctity and fundamental rights of the voter”.
The Bench posted the matter for hearing on August 31.
Mr. Nath contended there were 60 lakh duplicate, repeat, multiple, illegal, invalid, false, etc, entries/voters in the electoral rolls of Madhya Pradesh for Assembly elections, 2018. Mr. Pilot alleged that there were nearly a crore such fake voters.
Mr. Nath contended that the poll bodies had dropped over 24 lakh voters from the voter list published in January 2018 for the State. “It would not be out of place to mention that the respondents have admitted that 2,37,234 photo entries were suspicious/ unclear/blank photos,” it said.
Mr. Pilot submitted that the final publication of voter list under Rules 22 (1) (c) of The Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 should be prepared at least 30 days in advance from the date of election notification and the final voter list should be given to the political party before the election notification is issued.
“No voter shall be deleted from the final list without intimation to political parties after the election notification,” his petition said.
The petitions pointed out that only 5.88 lakh units out of requisite total of 16.15 lakh units have been delivered till date and that there was delay in manufacturing and procuring VVPAT machines.
