The Supreme Court has decided not to interfere with the Election Commission’s management of voter lists. The Court will not intervene or take action regarding the procedures and decisions made by the Election Commission in managing voter lists for elections.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court expressed satisfaction with the Election Commission’s work in compiling the final voter list for the upcoming general elections. The Court dismissed any accusations against the electoral body for not taking sufficient measures to remove duplicate and ghost voters.
Advocate Amit Sharma, representing the EC, informed the bench comprising CJI D Y Chandrachud, and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, that while people, especially first-time voters, show interest in registering their names, there is a lack of effort from the electorate officers to assist the Election Commission in deleting duplicate and deceased entries from the voter lists.
Sharma highlighted that the Election Commission, along with a substantial number of booth-level officers, conducts house-to-house verification to address this issue. An IT-enabled system generates lists of probable Demographic Similar Entries (DSEs) & Photo Similar Entries (PSEs), aiding Electoral Registration officers (EROS)/AEROS in the verification process.
According to the final electoral roll, over 96.9 crore voters are registered across the country, with more than two crore young electors aged between 18-29 being added to the list.
After hearing Sharma’s submission, the bench disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) alleging the existence of large-scale duplicate entries and ghost voters in the voter list, seeking EC’s direction to delete their names before the general elections.
