Ahmedabad

The Gujarat High Court today turned down a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that asked for a judicial inquiry against the state election commission (SEC) and re-polling for those whose names were found deleted from the voters’ lists during the November 22 elections in the six municipal corporations of the state.

The Court of acting chief justice Jayant Patel rejected the PIL on the ground that the court would not interfere in the process of elections at this stage. It however observed that the voters were free to challenge the result after the elections were held.
He also refused to entertain several other petitions related to the local polls till the elections process was not completed.
The PIL was filed by advocate cum activist K R Koshti on whose petition earlier the court ordered the SEC to modify its notification for the local polls to include the NOTA option for voters.

Mr. Koshti who is also an activist associated with NGO in his petition filed yesterday had pointed out that thousands of names in the voters’ list were found to have been stamped as ‘deleted’ on the polling day in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar cities.

He alleged that the SEC and the district collectors cum returning officers of the six municipal bodies, did not follow the prescribed rules and procedures for deleting the names of voters who held valid identity cards and even turned up to cast their votes. He had requested the court for setting up of a judicial inquiry against the SEC in the matter order for fresh polls for those whose names were deleted from the voters’ register as an interim relief measure.

– DeshGujarat