Missing Voters: HC Allows Amol Palekar to Intervene in PIL

The Bombay High Court today allowed actor-director Amol Palekar and his wife Sandhya Gokhale to intervene in a public interest litigation seeking re-election in Pune Lok Sabha constituency where a large number of voters found their names missing during the May 17 Lok Sabha poll.

Palekar and Gokhale found their names deleted from the voter list on May 17 and could not vote. Their application points out that both had voted in the Municipal Corporation elections earlier when their names were on the list.

The bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka allowed them to intervene and asked the petitioner Arun Bhatia's lawyer to amend the petition. The court will hear the matter on May 6.

Bhatia, a former IAS officer who contested Lok Sabha election from Pune this time as a nominee of People's Guardian Party, has contended that several genuine voters were denied their right to vote.

Many had voters' identity cards and had voted in the past, but found their names missing on April 17. "The very nature of this error, i.e. wrongful deletion of previously registered voters, showed that the voters' list has grave and extensive errors. These deleted voters have also not changed their residence," the PIL says.

It demands a summary revision of the electoral rolls followed by a total or partial re-election.

The petition also seeks a direction to the authorities to produce the record and details of advertisements about enumeration or listing of voters ahead of the elections.

Two other similar petitions, one about missing names from voter list in Mumbai and another in Pune, have been filed in the High Court.