SC refuses plea to restrain EC from notifying GMHC elections

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a plea seeking to restrain the Election Commission from announcing elections to Greater Hyderabad municipal Corporation (GHMC) on the grounds of alleged presence of duplicate and fake names in the voters list.

Refusing to entertain the plea by a resident of Hyderabad, a vacation bench of Justice S.A. Bobde and Justice Prafulla C. Pant asked the petitioner to approach the high court as it was an issue confined to the state.

As senior counsel Ravindra Shrivastava appearing for the petitioner K. Mahesh Gouda told the court that there were 7.9 fake and duplicate voters in the voters list of 70 lakh, the court observed that these are allegations which are yet to be determined.

Telling Shrivastava that it was aware of the "gravity of the issue and it was a serious issue", the court asked him: "Why don't you go to the high court."

The court said this as Shrivastava contended that the people of Hyderabad had a right to be guided by the earlier directions of the apex court and the presence of "farce and fake" voters violated the people's right to free and fair elections.

He said that the election to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation may be announced any time.

The counsel told the court that the chief electoral officer of the state has admitted that there were 7.9 lakh fake voters and same would be deleted only after the election to the GHMC.