Delhi High Court Urges EC to Tackle Voter Duplication Ahead of Elections

The Delhi High Court has directed the Election Commission to address concerns of duplicate voter entries in Delhi, following a petition alleging large-scale duplication. The court also highlighted the use of technological tools to eliminate such issues, underscoring the significance of maintaining electoral integrity.

On Wednesday, the Delhi High Court called upon the Election Commission to address allegations of duplicate entries in the capital's voter list. This directive follows a petition by Rashtravadi Adharsh Mahasangh, which claims mass duplication of voters, thus jeopardizing the democratic process's integrity.

The bench, spearheaded by Acting Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru, acknowledged that such issues typically arise during elections. The court advised the Election Commission to consider leveraging technology to prevent future duplications in electoral rolls. Though the petitioner's counsel expressed concerns that these efforts might not be concluded before the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, the bench noted that a revision process can't occur during this period due to the imminent polls.

Election Commission advocate Sidhant Kumar highlighted the absence of specific duplication instances in the petition, emphasizing that the Commission had initiated necessary electoral roll revisions. He also mentioned that the Supreme Court has previously addressed this concern. The Election Commission stated the application of technological tools had already commenced, aimed at eradicating duplicate entries, effectively resolving the grievances.

The court subsequently disposed of the petition, directing concerned parties to address the issues at an appropriate juncture. The Rashtravadi Adharsh Mahasangh's plea stressed that thousands of duplicates in voter lists could be rectified using methods like Photo Similar Entries (PSE) and Demographic Similar Entries (DSE). These techniques are part of the electoral revision process as per the Election Commission's directive from August 2023.

The petition criticized state authorities for laxity in handling duplicates on voter lists, undermining electoral integrity and infringing on citizens' fundamental rights to "one person, one vote." It emphasized the role of new Artificial Intelligence tools in swiftly detecting and removing duplicate entries from the electoral rolls.

(With inputs from agencies.)