The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Election Commission to publish the names of about 1.6 crore persons against whom the poll panel had raised “logical discrepancy” objections during the special intensive revision exercise in Tamil Nadu, The Hindu reported.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi directed that the list be posted in taluk offices across the state. The court added that those whose names are on the list will have 10 days from the date of its display to submit their documents for verification.
The bench added that the list should also briefly mention against each name the “logical discrepancy” that the poll panel had found in their forms.
“Logical discrepancies” that the Election Commission has flagged during the special intensive revision process include mismatches in parents’ names, low age gap with parents and the number of children of the parents being above six.
The draft electoral rolls for Tamil Nadu under the special intensive revision exercise were published on December 19. The names of 97.3 lakh persons were removed from the draft voter lists in the state.
The court on Thursday was hearing a petition filed by a group of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaders, The Hindu reported. The petition had noted that the period to file claims and objections during the revision exercise in the state was ending on January 30.
It added that Electoral Registration Officers had submitted that there was a “staggering gap of 88%, that is, 1,21,05,441 voters” who had not yet received hearing notices, the newspaper reported.
The petition urged the court to extend the directions issued in a January 19 order on an application filed by the West Bengal government to Tamil Nadu as well.
On January 19, the court had told the Election Commission to publish the names of about 1.2 crore persons in West Bengal against whom logical discrepancy objections had been raised.
Besides Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, the special intensive revision of electoral rolls is underway in 10 other states and Union Territories.
In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly polls in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll.
Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll. Several petitioners also moved the Supreme Court against it.
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