Supreme Court Reserves Verdict on Congress Plea on Duplicate Voters

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its order on a plea by Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Kamal Nath claiming existence of a large number of duplicate voters in the electoral rolls of the state going to Assembly elections in November. The Congress leader has moved the top court seeking that the voter list be made available in text mode, so that it can be scanned to identify the duplicate votes. He stated that they have already identified about 60 lakh duplicate voters in the state electoral rolls.

The Election Commission (EC), however, disputed the contention by Kamal Nath and told the bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan that deletion of 24 lakh votes from the voter list was not done after the Congress brought it to their knowledge but by way of its own exercise of checking the electoral rolls. Alleging that the Congress leader has relied upon documents which he knows are not correct, senior counsel Vikas Singh, who represented the Election Commission, told the bench that it is a fit case for action under Section 193 of the IPC for intentionally producing false documents. Vikas Singh told the court that the Commission has to move with the law as it progresses and has to take steps to protect the data about voters and ensure that it is not misused. (IANS)