PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE I NAINITAL
Hearing the matter of people of outside listed in the voter list of Budhlakot Gram Sabha in Nainital district, the Uttarakhand High Court on Thursday directed the State Election Commission (SEC) to present verification records, if any, in the court on Friday to show on what basis these persons were included in the list.
The counsel representing the commission informed the division bench of chief justice G Narendar and justice Alok Mahra that the names which were objected to were checked by a committee. Objecting to this, the petitioner contended that such persons were not named in the family register of the Gram Sabha, adding that there were irregularities in cases of such persons named in the said register. Hearing the two sides, the HC directed the SEC to present the verification records in the court on Friday.
Budhlakot resident Akash Bora had filed a public interest litigation in the HC stating that after a committee formed by the sub divisional magistrate based on his complaint about outsiders included in the voter list of the Gram Sabha found that 18 persons in the list were from outside the area, these names were still not removed from the voter list. He had contended that most of these people were from Odisha and other places.
After filing the PIL, Bora also presented a list of 30 other such persons in the court. During the hearing on the previous date, the counsel for the SEC stated that the booth level officer (BLO) had gone from house to house to identify the voters, on the basis of which the voter list had been prepared. The HC had asked the SEC whether the Aadhaar card, voter ID, ration card or any document related to their domicile was checked at the time of preparing the voter list. If these were checked, the records should be presented in the court, the HC had directed.
