Madras High Court today directed the Election Commission to inform it about the feasibility of including door numbers in the voters' list.
The direction was given by Justice MM Sundresh on a petition by DMK which alleged inclusion of a large number of voters and removal in the electoral roll during the last three revisions in the state, which is scheduled to go for Assembly elections around May next year.
Observing that EC has the role to conduct a free and fair election and all the procedures contemplated and adopted were meant for that purpose, the judge asked it to inform about the feasibility of including the door numbers (of voters) in the voters' list furnished and to be furnished at the booth level.
Noting that there was still sufficient time for elections to the Assembly, the judge said: "There is no restriction on the procedures to be followed keeping in mind the object... behind the conduct of free and fair election."
The DMK, represented by its organising secretary RS Bharathi, in its petition sought a direction to the EC to submit a soft copy of full details of the applications that were made for inclusion in the voters' list.
He alleged that the inclusion of names in the voters list during 5.4.2014 to 1.10.2014 was only 65,398, while during the three weeks from 15.10.2014 it was 16,23,774.
Similarly, during January-September 2015, 4.20 lakh applications were received for new inclusions which was 6.4-times higher than the claims made in the same period of the previous year of 2014. Also, during the period from 15.09.2015 till 24.10.2015, the inclusion was 25.9 times more compared to the corresponding period of previous year, he said.
Hence, the petitioner prayed that the court direct the EC to submit a soft copy and also give time to submit their objections after verification.
