Allahabad HC questions deletion of 138 Amethi voters from final panchayat roll

Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court has sought an explanation from the Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission over the deletion of 138 names from the final voter list in Amethi, despite their inclusion in the draft electoral roll.

A bench of Justice Jaspreet Singh passed the direction on Tuesday while hearing a writ petition filed by 138 residents of Gopalpur village under Mahmoodpur Benipur Gram Panchayat in Amethi district.

The petitioners submitted that their names had figured in the electoral rolls for nearly a decade and were also included in the draft list. However, the names were omitted from the final electoral roll without prior notice to them, they alleged.

During the hearing on October 9, the court asked the state counsel to explain the rules and procedure under which the names could be deleted.

The court questioned how the names could be removed at the stage of final publication despite their inclusion in the earlier rolls and the draft list, particularly without notifying the persons concerned.

The state had sought time to examine the matter and obtain instructions. The court had initially listed the case for October 14 and observed that it might summon the officer concerned if satisfactory instructions were not provided.

The matter is now listed for October 29.

Desk Note:

The case concerns a gram panchayat electoral roll and the Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission, not the Election Commission of India or the Special Intensive Revision of parliamentary rolls. But it turns on the question at the centre of the wider roll litigation - whether a name that appears in the draft can be dropped from the final list without notice to the person - and it returns to court a day before the INDIA bloc's 'public impeachment' of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in Delhi.

(With inputs from PTI and media reports)