Presence of 45,000 bogus voters shocks judicial conscience: HC

CHENNAI: The presence and elimination of about 45,830 bogus voters in the electoral rolls pertaining to RK Nagar Assembly constituency, which is going to polls on December 21, has shocked its judicial conscience, the Madras High Court observed on Wednesday.

A division bench of justices TS Sivagnanam and K Ravichandrabaabu, which made the observation, also appreciated the efforts taken by DMK in deleting the bogus votes and directed the Election Commission (EC) to take stringent action against those responsible for inclusion of bogus voters.

The bench said it would like to record its deep anguish about the deleted entries originally part of the voters’ list. These entries, if not found and corrected at the appropriate time, would have resulted in bogus voting, as rightly contended by petitioner’s senior counsel P Wilson. But for the repeated representations made by him and the DMK, it is doubtful whether the fake voters would have been deleted at all from electoral roll, the bench said.

Taking note of the petitioner’s complaint, the EC deleted 45,836 voters after 100 per cent door-to-door verification. Now it is alleged that 1,947 more multiple entries exist but could not be deleted in view of the statutory time constraint, as enumerated under Section 23(3) of the Representation of the People Act.
It was also stated by EC that the total strength of electoral roll for this particular constituency as on December 4 is 2,28,234. The figure was arrived at after deletion of 45,836 of bogus voters, but including 1,947 fake ones.

“These figures undoubtedly shock our judicial conscience as the total number of voters deleted so far itself is alarmingly very high. In other words, it is 1/5th  the number of present eligible voters. These deleted figures are not minimal or negligible. Needless to say that even a single vote may change the result. Therefore, while we appreciate the steps taken by the petitioner in setting the electoral roll in order.

We do expect the Election Commission to take severe action not only against such deleted voters (unless there are justifiable and genuine reasons to conclude that they are not at fault) and also against the person/persons/ political party or parties who were instrumental in effecting inclusion of those illegal entries.”

“The punishment against those persons must be of severe nature even to an extent of banning them from voting or contesting the election permanently forever. Unless such strong measures are taken and messages are sent, these sort of evil attempts will continue, resulting in mockery of democracy.

“We strongly believe that the EC will take all effective steps and ensure that a free and fair election will never be compromised on any account and the same will be achieved at any cost, as the election is the sole lifeline of democracy,” the bench said.

Considering the above stated facts and circumstances and the developments made after the order passed in the writ petition earlier and also by taking note of the submissions made by the EC before the court with facts and figures as discussed supra, the judges, however, said they found no reason to entertain the miscellaneous petition any more.

They made it clear that the election officials would strictly follow the relevant instructions issued by EC on April 4, 2014 in respect of the disputed voters by making notable mark or affixing seal with prominence against them in the electoral rolls and circulating the same to all polling stations. The officials shall also supply the same to all contestants and conduct the election in a free and fair manner, the bench said.

Dos and don’ts for poll material printers

Chennai: The returning officer has instructed printers and banner-makers to get permission from the election office three days prior to printing of political propaganda material. Printers were warned not to print material with casteist, racial and religious overtones. They were also warned of legal action and seizure of their printing instruments, if they violated instructions