Chennai:
Madras High Court has been urged to issue directions to Election Commission of India to allow authorised agents of respective candidates contesting the Lok Sabha polls to be present during the distribution of absent/shifted/dead (ASD) marked photo voter slips.
The petition filed by advocate L S M Hasan Fizal, which came up before the first bench comprising acting chief justice Satish K Agnihotri and justice M M Sundresh, stated that the ASD marked photo voter slips at the office of Electoral Registration Offercers (EROs), Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs), Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and any other officers should be done in the presence of authorised agent of respective candidate on the day of poll or any other date on prior intimation with sufficient time.
The petition also urged Election Commission to direct electoral officers to distribute the ASD voter slips to the voter claimants only on production of notified alternate ID proofs.
Quoting the narrative report published by Election Commission in the book, “Report on General Elections to Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly 2011,” he said as per the report the average distribution of voter slips is 97.29 per cent.
He said there is no mention about percentage of distribution is each level. These include regular distribution of ASD slips besides distribution of slips at the office of Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) and distribution of slips on the day of the polling.
Stating that it is not humanly practicable to distribute entire photo voters slips to entire voters to shop 98 to 100 per cent, the petitioner said this raises suspicion as to distribution of voters slips to genuine voters.
He submitted that non-permission of authorised agents to be present during the distribution is not proper and would result in malpractices like giving away the slips to bogus voters.
The judges issued one week notice to Election Commission of India and Chief electoral officer.
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