Voters' list matter: SC dismisses Congress' petitions

In a major setback to the Congress Party, the Supreme Court on Friday dismissed Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot's petition seeking a direction to the Election Commission (EC) with respect to the upcoming Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan state assembly elections.

"We don't find any merit in the petitions. We accordingly dismiss these," a two-judge bench of the apex court headed by Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri said in the order.

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal, who was appearing for Nath, had told the apex court that the voter list of Madhya Pradesh should be given in the text format, rather than in the PDF format.

Sibal had also submitted to the top court that there are five crore voters in the state of Madhya Pradesh and to search for a genuine voter is very difficult. He added that there are approximately 68 lakh bogus voters in the state.

Vikas Singh, the lawyer appearing for the EC, had submitted to the top court that Nath's petition regarding discrepancies in the voter list in Madhya Pradesh was based on false evidence. Singh had also told the apex court that the list available on their website was tweaked which was presented before the court.

Reacting to the verdict, Congress parliamentarian from Haryana Deepender Hooda said, "It is unfortunate, there are issues with voter lists in other state also and it should be taken seriously. Election Commission working as puppet, we will also highlight the same in Haryana."

On August 10, Nath, in his petition sought the top court's intervention and a direction to the ECI that the number of votes cast on the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) should tally with the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) for the upcoming Madhya Pradesh election.

He also sought the apex court to direct to that the poll bodies undertake effective measures to ensure free and fair polls in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.