Ahmedabad: Two Congress leaders from Surat moved the Gujarat High Court, urging it to direct the Election Commission to strictly adhere to the rules and not delete voters’ names immediately in response to objections raised by BJP workers during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.The petition was filed by Vipul Udhnawala and Vinod Patil through advocate Zameer Shaikh, seeking to ensure that the officials involved in the SIR strictly followed the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. They alleged that several Congress leaders informed the authorities that officers deleted voters’ names after receiving objections under Rule 13(1) in the prescribed Form 7. The officers neither followed the mandatory procedure of giving people whose names were sought to be deleted an opportunity to be heard nor did they put the list of such names on their notice board, the petition states.The petitioners also contended that even in case of a suo motu objection by the official, the voter’s name is required to be put on the notice board. However, this procedure was not followed across Gujarat, the petitioners complained.They also argued that, in violation of the prescribed procedure, BJP workers submitted mass objections across the state without documentary proof or compliance with statutory rules, and that officials removed names without giving affected citizens a chance to be heard.They cited the Supreme Court’s observation in this regard: “If a person’s name appears on the draft electoral roll, there is a legal presumption that the person is an Indian citizen, and the burden of proof lies on the individual filing an objection under Form 7.”“If statutory rules are not followed in the SIR, the rights of every voter of Gujarat are in danger,” the petitioners contended, and prayed for directions to the authorities to strictly follow the rules.The petition is likely to come up for a hearing in the near future.
