Bombay HC questions voters' role in updating electoral list

The Bombay High Court has raised questions over the responsibility of electorate to ensure their names are on the voters' list instead of putting all the blame on authorities.

In an order earlier this week on a bunch of petitions complaining against deletion of the names in the voters' list during the recent Lok Sabha elections, the court noted that petitioners have emphasised upon the magnitude of deletions and contended that it was indicative of negligence on the part of electoral authorities.

"However, there is no adequate explanation forthcoming from the petitioners, who at least personally, are neither poor nor illiterate, as to the steps adopted by them to verify that their names continue on the electoral rolls or for inclusion of their names in the electoral rolls, no sooner draft or final electoral rolls came to be published," a division bench of justices A S Oka and M S Sonak observed in their order.