Hyderabad: Telangana high court has refused to pass any order while hearing a petition filed by city-based Syed Qutubuddin Masood, who alleged that his vote, along with that of his family ,was deleted from the electoral rolls due to which they could not exercise their adult franchise in the 2024 general election.Masood alleged inaction on his multiple representations to the election authorities during the past two years and approached the high court, seeking directions to include their names in the electoral rolls.A bench, comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin, while dismissing the petition, directed the petitioner and his family members to participate in the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) process and submit forms and enrol themselves.Masood, who was originally a voter in the Bahadurpura assembly constituency, claimed that he found that his vote and that of his mother, two brothers and their wives were deleted from the electoral rolls. He alleged that their votes were deleted without any reason or prior information to them.His counsel Syed Mounis Jafer Abidi further argued that the arbitrary removal of their names from the voter registry and failure of election officials to correct the error could lock them out of the oncoming SIR 2026 process.“Despite having a continuous voter registration history spanning several decades , with records dating back to at least 2002 , their names are missing from the current electoral database,” Abidi contended.He further argued that without immediate restoration of their names on the rolls, it would be impossible for the petitioner and his family members to properly identify and map their records during the 2026 revision. “They fear this administrative oversight will ultimately strip them of their statutory and constitutional rights to vote, causing irreversible hardship and prejudice to the entire household,” Abidi added.In response, ECI counsel informed the bench that the ongoing SIR provides options for inclusion of such voters whose names have been missing from the electoral rolls and, since the petitioner and his family were already mapped in the last SIR conducted in 2002, they could submit their enumeration forms to the respective BLOs and enrol themselves.Recording the submissions, the bench noted that the SIR provides a procedure for the correction of rolls in cases of persons whose names were deleted or who have become eligible to become voters.Stating that the court refrains from exercising its writ jurisdiction in the matter, the bench said it was not inclined to interfere in the process, while directing the petitioner and his family to submit their forms.The bench also clarified that if their names were not included in the rolls, they could appeal before the election authorities concerned and later before courts as per the procedure.
