22 Jan 2024 1:42 PM GMT
The Supreme Court on Monday (January 22) sought a response from the Election Commission of India (ECI) concerning the steps it has taken to revise the electoral rolls and tackle the issue of duplication of entries in those instances where either the electors have been deceased or have shifted their place of residence.
Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora informed the bench that no response has come from the Election Commission in pursuance of the previous order of the Court.
“The Election Commission was directed specifically to put its response, and there is no response as yet”
The CJI replied “We have not issued notice as yet” and sought assistance from the standing counsel of ECI, Mr Amit Sharma. Mr Sharma has sought time for filing a response on behalf of the ECI.
The bench in its order dictated, asked the ECI to file a short counter within 2 weeks on “the steps taken by the Election Commission for the revision of the electoral rolls in respect of duplicate entries”
The bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra was hearing the petition filed by Samvidhan Bachao Trust, an NGO.
In the previous hearing, Senior Advocate Arora, representing the petitioner in the matter, asserted that the current process of updating electoral rolls primarily focused on removing names of deceased individuals those who have changed their place of residence. However, Arora emphasized that no concrete had been taken to tackle the issue of duplicate entries in the electoral rolls. Furthermore, Arora pointed out that the exercise for addressing these issues should have already been completed between July and August of the current year, but the same had not been done.
Relying upon the communication of the Chief Electoral Officer, Uttar Pradesh, she further stressed that no steps have been taken for the verification of duplicate entries.
The Court in its last order observed, “ Before this Court decides to proceed in the matter, it would be appropriate if we direct that a copy of the Petition be served on Mr Amit Sharma, Standing Counsel for the Election Commission of India.”
Case Title: Samvidhan Bachao Trust v Election Commission of India W.P.(C) No. 1228/2023 PIL-W