Hyderabad: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has told the Telangana High Court that it will issue speaking orders explaining why eligible voters have been excluded from the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) final list.
However, such orders will be issued only if the names are removed after voters attended the hearings in response to notices and submitted documents.
The assurance was given during a hearing on Tuesday, October 13.
Speaking orders can be challenged
The ECI’s senior counsel said voters could challenge these speaking orders through an appeal.
The counsel also submitted that if no order was passed in a case, it could be treated as an indication that the voter’s name would be included in the Telangana SIR final list.
This was said when a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice P Sam Koshy and Justice Nandikonda Narsing Rao was hearing a petition filed by SQ Masood and others.
The petition challenges the ECI’s use of an automated data-matching system to identify discrepancies in SIR enumeration forms and issue notices to voters.
Concerns over voter exclusions
The petitioners expressed concern that eligible voters could be removed from the electoral roll because of discrepancies identified by the automated system.
One petitioner claimed that his name was missing from the draft electoral roll despite having voted several times in previous elections.
Another petitioner said he received a notice over a mismatch in his father’s name compared with the details in the 2002 electoral roll. Although he submitted documents in response, he said the authorities had not communicated any decision to him.
ECI’s response
In response, the ECI’s counsel said the petitioner whose name had been deleted needed to submit Form 6 to enrol as a new voter.
When responding to the issue raised by the other petitioner, the ECI sought dismissal of the petition, saying that the voter had approached the High Court before the publication of Telangana SIR final list.
The petitioners sought one day to submit further arguments in response to the ECI’s submissions.
The court declined to dismiss the petition and adjourned the matter to October 15 for a further hearing.
Telangana SIR final list
The final electoral roll is scheduled to be released on Monday, November 9.
Till Monday, October 12, more than 2.42 crore voters in Telangana had been cleared for inclusion in the final electoral roll.
Of the 2,64,87,213 voters included in the draft list, 2,42,41,626 had so far been marked for inclusion in the final roll. This is about 90 per cent of the draft electorate.
