IMPORTANT POINTS
ECI’s instructions for updating only ‘Image PDF’ of electoral roll upheld.
Prayer for conducting VVPAT verification at least 10% randomly selected polling stations in each assembly constituency/assembly segment to ensure free and fair elections rejected.

JUDGMENT

A.K.SIKRI, J.

Writ Petition (Civil) No. 935 of 2018 is filed by the petitioner, who is the President of the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee, claiming the following reliefs:

“(a) Issue an appropriate writ, order or direction to the Respondents to issue directions for conducting VVPAT verification at least 10% randomly selected polling stations in each assembly constituency/assembly segment to ensure free and fair elections;

(b) issue an appropriate writ, order or direction to the Respondents to publish voter list in text format as per rules, and to expeditiously decide all complaints qua final publication of voter list under Rules 22(1)(c) of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 and to prohibit deletion of voters from the voter list without intimation to political parties;

(c) issue an appropriate writ, order or direction to the Respondents to issue fresh guidelines qua VVPAT whilst considering the grounds/issues raised in the present writ petition, including but not limited to random VVPAT checks, mock polls and recounting, quality of Thermal Paper and printing, collection of Paper Trails and storage, unique identification numbers on VVPAT and paper trail collection boxes, transportation of EVMs and VVPAT before and after polls, First Level Checking (FLC) of VVPAT and posting of officials; and

(d) any such further and other order/orders be passed as may be necessary and deemed fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case to subserve the interest of justice.

2. As can be seen from the aforesaid prayer clause, essentially two reliefs are prayed for. First relief is for issuance of directions for conducting Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) verification on random basis for 10% of the votes. In the second place, direction is sought to provide to the petitioner soft copies of the draft electoral rolls published on July 31, 2018 in text format; to decide complaints pertaining to voter list expeditiously; and to prohibit deletion of voters from the voter list without intimation to the political parties.

3. In Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1000 of 2018, similar reliefs were pressed. However, the facts as they appear in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 935 of 2018 are taken note of.

4. We would like to place on record, at the outset, that the detailed arguments which were advanced by the petitioner were highly concentrated on the second prayer, that too for providing soft copies of the draft electoral rolls in text format. Insofar as the first relief is concerned, objection was raised by Mr. Vikas Singh, learned senior counsel appearing for respondent No.1 – Election Commission of India (hereinafter referred to as ‘ECI’), to the maintainability of such a prayer on the ground that this issue has already been dealt with by this Court. We will take note of the respective submissions on this aspect at the appropriate stage. Since, the second prayer has become the bone of contention, in the first instance, we would like to deal with that aspect.

5. The main reason for which the petitioner is seeking direction to the respondents to publish voter list in text format and supply the same is that it is necessitated to ensure that the voter list is properly and fairly drawn, which includes all the eligible voters on the one hand and also excludes the duplicate, fake or incorrect voters. It is stated by the petitioner that he along with senior leaders from the State of Madhya Pradesh submitted a detailed representation on June 03, 2018 highlighting various duplicate, repeat, multiple, illegal, invalid and false entries/voters in the electoral rolls of Madhya Pradesh for Assembly Elections, 2018 and the ECI was requested to address the same. As per the petitioner, there is an increase by 40% in numbers of voters vis-avis population numbers of electors in the State of Madhya Pradesh since the last Assembly Election, i.e. in the last five years. It is contended that if voters/electors with birth year 1991- 2001 will attain age of 18 y