NGOs challenge deletion of over two lakh names in voters list

Mumbai, April 30: A petition challenging the deletion of names of over two lakh voters from the electoral roll of Mumbai city and its suburbs was today filed in the Bombay High Court.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Mohit Shah decided to hear on May 6 the PIL filed by two NGOs - Action for good Governance and Networking in India (AGNI) and Birthright.

This is the second petition challenging the deletion of names from voters list. The first one was from Pune voters and is pending in the High Court. The PIL said that 2,10,123 names were found deleted from Mumbai's voters list which appeared on the website of Election Commission of India.

Most of the persons whose names was found missing from the voters list had neither expired nor had they shifted their residence from Mumbai and hence their names should not have been removed thus illegally.

The petition said they were approached by 6,500 persons, whose names were "illegally" removed from the voters list, with a list of their names and details. Most of these persons had voted during 2009 parliamentary polls and also during civic polls in Mumbai in 2011.

The petitioners said they have filed the petition for judicial redress on behalf of the voters whose names have been deleted and denied their right of casting their vote in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014.

The petitioners stated that due to the arbitrary and illegal action on the part of the respondents, the democratic system and the structure of governance in India had been denigrated and its sacred foundations seriously undermined.

The petitioners said a 'Right to Vote' is the fountainhead of a democratic republic and the power that all citizens of a democratic republic have in their hands. A necessary corollary would also be that a denial of such right would amount to enslaving a republic to tyranny, autocracy and a situation where the concept of 'Elected Representatives' is set to naught and becomes farcical.

PTI