SC dismisses Congress leaders' pleas demanding voters' list in text-format
What's the story
Supreme Court today dismissed two separate petitions of senior Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot seeking directions to Election Commission to provide draft voters' list in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in text format.
Polls in MP will be held on November 28 and in Rajasthan on December 7.
A bench of justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said, "We've dismissed these petitions".
Voters' duplication
Congress leaders' petitions allege voters' duplication in the list
The SC reserved its verdict on October-8 on Congress leaders' pleas alleging duplication of voters in the list and sought a proper redressal of grievances to ensure fair elections.
The plea filed by Nath said directions should be issued to publish voters' lists in "text format as per rules", instead of PDF format, and expeditious decisions are taken on all complaints before their final publication.
Information
Plea seeks direction for poll-panel to randomly verify VVPAT slips
Nath has also said a direction should be issued to the poll panel to randomly verify the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with votes cast on electronic voting machines (EVMs) at 10% randomly-selected polling stations in every constituency.
Justification
Poll panel had justified providing draft electoral roll in PDF
On September 18, the poll panel had, in its affidavit, justified providing the draft electoral roll in PDF format in Madhya Pradesh without the pictures of the voters and said it was done to prevent manipulation of electors' data.
The pleas further alleged that there were over 60L fake voters in Madhya Pradesh and similarly, in Rajasthan, there were over 41L duplicate voters.
Information
Poll panel had added 71L new voters in Rajasthan: Plea
In Rajasthan, the poll panel had added 71 lakh new voters, the plea said, demanding that directions be given to remove inconsistencies and conduct free and fair elections.