Dimapur, August 11 (EMN): Seeking the removal of reported 4 lakhs ‘bogus voters’ from the state electoral roll, the ACAUT has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) at the Gauhati High Court, Kohima Bench.Dimapur, August 11 (EMN): Seeking the removal of reported 4 lakhs ‘bogus voters’ from the state electoral roll, the ACAUT has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) at the Gauhati High Court, Kohima Bench.A press release from ACAUT on Friday informed that the chief secretary, the chief electoral officer of Election department, and the chief election commissioner of ECI have been listed as respondents in said PIL.“On 27th September 2016, the chief electoral officer, state Election Commission, had honestly admitted in public interaction that there are still about 4 lakh bogus and multiple names in the state electoral roll. Also, that according to ECI guidelines, the elector-population ratio should not be more than 65: 100. “Whereas the CEO, Nagaland, in an RTI reply furnished to the ACAUT on 31st January, 2017, pointed out that there are still 70 polling stations across 23 constituencies (out of 60) where the e-roll of the polling station/village is more than the total population of the polling station/village, thereby pointing to e-roll malpractices”, it pointed out.
Through the PIL, ACAUT has sought “deletion of 400,000 bogus and multiple voters” by following these measures:
• The respondents to implement in toto sections 17 and 18 of the Representation of the People Act,1950 where “no person shall be entitled to be registered in the electoral roll for more than one constituency”.
• The respondents particularly the Election Commission of India be directed to conduct intensive revision of the electoral roll in the state of Nagaland before the 2018 State Assembly Election so as to ensure free and fair election; validated with Aadhar Card- the only identification process functionally equivalent to the electoral identification process, which is, one man one vote; validated with thumb/finger print impression of all the voters linked with bio-metric EVMs ensuring one man one vote so as to restrain from booth capturing and other electoral malpractices infringing the fundamental rights of citizens.
• The Election Commission to issue direction and inform all voters enrolled, especially the government servants, the implementation and implications of Section 17, 18 & 31 of the Representation of the Peoples Act,1950, read with section 420 of IPC of those who have enrolled in more than one place of its consequences explicitly and clearly of its violations.
• That the Election Commission may be directed to implement, during the coming 2018 General State Assembly election, taking of photographs (inside the polling booth) of each voters by using digital cameras which later on can be cross-verified and tallied with the actual name, image/EPIC and number of voters in the electoral roll by using de-duplication software of ECI, electoral roll management system (herein referred to as ERMS). Such a system would ensure that only the registered voters of the particular polling station exercise their franchise. Thus, the common practice of bogus, multiple voters, booth capturing where outsiders or non-registered voters are paid to engage in electoral malpractices will be dealt with.
• And to pass any order/ direction as this Hon’ble Court may deem fit, proper, and appropriate to suppress the mischief and advance the remedy, and add force and life to the cure and remedy pro bono public.
