The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its judgement on petitions filed by Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot alleging duplication of voters on electoral rolls in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan concluded the hearing on the matter. Last week, the Election Commission told the Supreme Court that Nath was using fabricated documents sourced from a private company to malign the poll panel’s image.
The petitions sought random verification of Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail slips as well as the publication of voter lists in text format for elections in the two states.
The Congress had written to the EC on June 3 about the presence of a large number of duplicate voters in the electoral rolls. The Election Commission EC, however, disputed the contention by Kamal Nath and told the bench of Justice AK 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 the Indian Penal Code for intentionally producing false documents. Pressing for an inquiry, Vikas Singh objected to the practice of counsel for the petitioners handing over the documents to the bench across the bar and maligning the EC.
Vikas Singh told the court that the EC has to take steps to protect the data about voters and ensure that it is not misused. The EC defended its decision not to supply the voters list in text mode, citing voters' right to privacy, and said that it is already making changes in its manual.