CHENNAI: Alleging that his name was removed from the electoral rolls of Coimbatore Lok Sabha constituency, an Indian doctor, currently serving in Australia, has filed a petition in the Madras High Court, seeking a direction to the Election Commission of India to restore his voting right before the counting of votes takes place on June 4.
The petition was filed by R Suthanthira Kannan of Nanjundapuram in Coimbatore. He said he came down to India on April 13 to cast his vote in order to fulfil his “fundamental duty”. However, he was shocked to find that his name and his wife’s name were missing from the voters list, but the name of his daughter, who shares the same address, was present.
He said he filed a complaint to the Election Commission of India through its online portal and it was duly acknowledged. A number of persons living in his vicinity, who were casting votes in previous elections, have found their names left out in the electoral rolls, he alleged.
It is not due to their fault but due to the arbitrary and inefficient way the rolls were prepared by the authorities for the Lok Sabha polls, he said. The names of “thousands of voters” were not found on the rolls when they went to the polling booth on April 19 to cast their votes, he stated in the petition.
Kannan further said that he and his wife had lost their fundamental right to vote and choose their representative since their names were deleted. “The deprivation of the voting right during this election amounts to infringement of the fundamental right as guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution. We have a positive role to play in electing the MP of our constituency for another five years,” he said.
He urged the court to direct the ECI to provide the voters, who were left out, an opportunity to cast their votes by including their names on the rolls. He also sought a direction to postpone the counting of votes until these voters are allowed to cast their franchise.
