Supreme Court Dismisses PIL on Duplicate Voter Entries

The Supreme Court declined to hear a PIL urging the Election Commission to address duplicate voter entries. Instead, the petitioner, Rashtrawadi Adarsh Mahasangh, was advised to take specific issues to high courts. The plea cited the menace of duplicate entries as a threat to democracy.

On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to hear a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that sought directions to the Election Commission and state election bodies regarding duplicate and multiple voter list entries. The bench, led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar, ruled that issuing universal directions was beyond the court's purview.

The petitioner, Rashtrawadi Adarsh Mahasangh, a registered political entity, highlighted the issue of duplicate voter entries, depicting it as a grave risk to election integrity. Advocates Avadh Bihari Kaushik and Umseh Sharma represented the petitioner, which was encouraged to address specific grievances through high courts and file pertinent representations with the appropriate authorities.

The plea underscored the enduring issue of voter duplication despite measures like Aadhaar-voter ID linkage. It called for a 30-day deadline to remove duplicates and proposed establishing an SIT led by a retired Supreme Court judge to oversee the process. Despite dismissing the case, the court emphasized that legal avenues remain to tackle such challenges.

(With inputs from agencies.)