BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has upheld the contention of the Election Commission of India (ECI) that the voters’ list does not freeze on the date of its publication, but is an ongoing process till the last date of filing of nomination as inclusion and exclusion of names will take place in the voters’ list.
Justice M Nagaprasanna passed the order while rejecting the petition filed by Shivajinagar Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad and 20 others questioning the publication of a list of Absentee, Shifted and Dead (ASD) of the constituency by the ECI in newspapers, in furtherance of the order passed by the court after several booth-level agents pointed out irregularities in the preparation of the list in two constituencies - Shivajinagar and Shanthinagar.
“What will unmistakably emerge from Section 23 of the Representation of the People Act is a person whose name is left out can always submit for inclusion of his name before the Registration Officer up to the last date of making nominations in a particular constituency and such transposition, deletion or amendment to the electoral roll can take place. What is necessary is strict adherence to the procedure,” the court said.
Arshad was one of those who were issued notice for shift of residence. Making that as the foundation of the petition, Arshad knocked on the doors of the court contending that once the electoral roll is finalised, there can be no change in the voters’ list.