Verify Photo Duplication in Voter Lists, HC tells Poll Panels

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) The Delhi High Court Tuesday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the chief electoral officer (CEO) to verify whether errors like same photo appearing for different persons were being found in the voter lists for the upcoming assembly polls in the city.

Justice Vibhu Bakhru directed the poll panel to verify whether errors like the same photograph appearing against different names were there in the voter lists while observing that there was duplication of photos in the electoral list.

Observing that there were people who have more than one voter identity card under different names, the court told the poll panels that it would imply that the same person can cast votes under more than one name.

The court asked the poll panels to file an affidavit and posted the matter for Jan 19.

The court was hearing a plea filed by Naresh Kumar, who contested on a Congress ticket from west Delhi's Mundka in the last assembly polls.

He alleged that there were many people in the city who had numerous voter cards in their name but with different addresses.

Apprising the court that there were over 41,000 forged voter identity card holders in his constituency, the petitioner sought the court's direction to delete the names of bogus voters from the voters' lists in the state.

"The voter identity cards are issued to a large number of bogus voters which may also be a security threat," the plea said.

It said the presence of bogus voters will have an adverse effect on the poll process.