Now Reading: HC seeks EC stand on Congress plea over voter list checks
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HC seeks EC stand on Congress plea over voter list checks
The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the Election Commission to respond to a Congress plea challenging the requirement for booth level agents to give a personal undertaking certifying they have verified…
The Story in Brief
The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the Election Commission to respond to a Congress plea challenging the requirement for booth level agents to give a personal undertaking certifying they have verified all details in electoral roll enumeration forms. Justice Amit Bansal issued the notice on a petition by Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Devender Yadav and listed the matter for August 12.
The petition argues that neither the Representation of the People Act nor the Registration of Electors Rules empowers the EC to demand such an undertaking. It says the law mandates that electoral registration officers, not private individuals, carry out verification. The plea seeks to set aside the Special Intensive Revision guidelines that impose the personal undertaking requirement, and also wants printed and soft copies of the 2022 rolls and frozen photo electoral roll for Delhi.
The Indian Opinion
Claims of EC overreach or partisan bias miss the point. The real question is whether the poll body can require party workers to personally certify roll data, a function the law assigns to registration officers. Congress says that shifts statutory duty to private actors. EC will likely argue it needs foot soldiers to clean bloated rolls. The August 12 hearing will test whether administrative convenience can override statutory process. If the court finds the undertaking unlawful, the EC will have to rely fully on its own machinery, a tall order given Delhi’s size.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
