Hyderabad HC seeks information on deleted voters

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday directed the Election Commission of India to place all details before it by Thursday on alleged deletion of 7.9 lakh voters from the electoral rolls of the GHMC.

A division bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt was dealing with a PIL filed by Mahesh Goud, a resident of the city, challenging the action of the TS government and the Election Commission to go ahead with elections to the GHMC without taking a decision on the alleged deletion of the 7.9 lakh voters from the electoral rolls.

The petitioner brought to the notice of the court that the EC has sent a communication making it clear that there are 7.9 lakh duplicate voters in GHMC area and the duplicate names were identified and they will be deleted after the elections to the GHMC are completed.

He said that GHMC polls will be held as per the voters list finalised by ECI. The ECI had given the green signal for the GHMC polls with nearly eight lakhs bogus voters, the petitioner said.

The bench pointed out that the petitioner at one stage said that they are duplicate votes and in another stage he mentioned bogus votes; there is a difference between bogus and duplicate.

The bench cautioned the petitioner that he has to put forth his arguments based on facts not on his assumptions.
Replying to a query from the bench, counsel for ECI Avinash Desai said duplicate names will be deleted only after serving of notices and if the EC deletes them without notice to voter concerned, he or she can approach the court.

The bench asked Mr Desai to get instructions on the issue and to inform the court about the steps taken by the commission in respect of the 7.9 lakh voters in the electoral roll.

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