New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its verdict on petitions filed by Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot alleging large-scale duplication of voters in the voters’ list in the two poll-bound states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
A bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and Ashok Bhushan reserved verdict at the conclusion of arguments by Kapil Sibal and Vivek Tanka for the petitioners even as Election Commission rejected the allegations as fabricated and false.
The EC said that the writ petitions filed by the two leaders ought to be dismissed as the same is an abuse of the process of law, besides being misconceived and malafide, as the petitioners are seeking to instruct/direct the Election Commission of India, which is a Constitutional Authority, to conduct elections according to their personal whims and fancies and that of the political party to which they stand affiliated.
Opposing a petition, senior counsel Vikas Singh asserted that EC is a constitutional body that has to function in accordance with the rules and laws and not in tandem with the “instructions” of a political party. It is not within the jurisdiction or domain of the petitioner and/or his party/organisation to question the measures taken by the Election Commission with regard to the conduct of elections or preparation of voters’ lists.
The EC further said that the political party to which they stand affiliated couldn’t approach the Supreme Court time and again so as to re-agitate the same issue and interfere in the functioning of a Constitutional authority such as the Election Commission. The electoral rolls were published on July 31 after due verification and duplicated voters were deleted. Both Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot sought deletion of large-scale bogus voters in the voters list for Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The petitioners pointed out that while there are over 60 lakh bogus voters in Madhya Pradesh, there are one crore bogus voters in Rajasthan.
Mr Sibal argued that despite the fact that such glaring instances were brought to the notice of the EC, nothing has been done so far to rectify the voters’ list.
