Supreme Court to examine challenge to Maharashtra electoral roll revision

The Supreme Court agreed to examine a challenge to Maharashtra's electoral roll revision. The case raises concerns over large-scale voter exclusions during relocation and redevelopment.

In Short

• Centre and Election Commission received notices before the November 5 hearing
• Petitioner Arun Anandagiri sought an immediate pause on the revision exercise
• Relocated Mumbai and Pune residents were reportedly marked as not found

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine a petition challenging the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Maharashtra, news agency Press Trust of India reported.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued notices to the Centre, the Election Commission of India and others. The matter has been listed for hearing on November 5.

The petition was filed by Arun Anandagiri, a chartered accountant and journalist. Senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for him, said voters who had temporarily moved during redevelopment projects in Mumbai and Pune had been deleted from the rolls under the category of “person not found”.

Datar said about 20 million of Maharashtra's 97.9 million voters had been removed from the draft rolls, while another 12.2 million had been struck off because of “logical discrepancies”.

The petition asked the court to put the revision exercise in Maharashtra on hold until the case is decided. It also sought a direction that no voter whose name appeared on the list before the revision should be excluded or deleted in the meantime.

According to PTI, the draft electoral rolls released after the revision excluded 20.68 million voters, or 21.14 per cent of the state's electorate. The office of Maharashtra's chief electoral officer said 20,688,487 of the state's 97,854,049 registered voters had been left out of the draft rolls because they could not be traced at their listed addresses during the exercise.

The Supreme Court will hear the challenge on November 5 after seeking responses from the Centre, the Election Commission and other parties over the exclusion of voters from Maharashtra's draft electoral rolls.

- Ends