The Gujarat High Court on Friday dismissed a public interest litigation seeking a direction to allow the voters, whose names were found deleted from electoral rolls during the municipal corporation polls, to cast vote in fresh polling. Besides, the HC has also rejected the plea in the same PIl to hold fresh elections saying that citizens were free to challenge the results of the local body polls
The PIl was filed by advocate and Ahmedabad district convener of Swaraj Abhiyan KR Koshti in the court of acting Chief Justice Jayant Patel on Thursday. Reacting on the PIl, HC instantly gave notice to State Election Commission (SEC).
The petitioner also requested the High Court to order judicial inquiry in the matter of deletion of names from the electoral rolls on large scale during the polls of six municipal corporations, including Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar. Koshti also pleaded the court to allow the voters, whose names were found deleted from electoral rolls, to cast vote in fresh polling.
While turning down the plea on the basis that the court would not interfere in the process of holding polls, justice Patel maintained that citizens were free to challenge the poll results. At this juncture, the High Court has also decided not to entertain any PIl related to civic body polls. If sources have to be believed, names of over 1 lakh electorates were missing from electoral rolls in the elections to six municipal corporations.