B D Sharma
The special summary revision of electoral rolls is going on in our UT with the publication of integrated draft electoral rolls on September 15. The ongoing revision of the Electoral rolls for the Assembly/ Parliament elections have generated a lot of heat these days. Political leaders based in the valley were in the forefront in raising some objections with regard to the revision. Later some voices were heard from Jammu region also. In fact leaders of various political parties from both the regions of the UT have joined hands to oppose the move by calling it as large scale inclusion of the non locals in the electoral rolls under preparation. A committee has been formed by these political parties which consists of members from the five constituents of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration apart from the representatives from other political parties such as Congress party, Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan Party etc. They plan to hold peaceful protests on the roads. Member of Parliament, Hasnain Masoodi of the National Conference in the presence of other leaders addressed the media and stated that they were against giving voting rights to the non-locals as “it will tantamount to the disenfranchisement of the local voters.”
While addressing his party men the other day the former Chief minister and the vice President of the National Conference, Omar Abdullah has also alleged that some people were importing voters from outside to win the elections.
While addressing the media, Mr Masoodi also criticized the now revoked order of the District Election Officer Jammu authorizing the Tehsildars of the district to issue certificates of residence in respect of persons who were residing for more than one year within their jurisdiction to facilitate their inclusion in the voter list. Earlier a statement by the Chief Electoral Officer , mentioning that about twenty five lakh voters were expected to be included during the current revision had also evoked a sharp reaction from some political parties. These political parties had interpreted it as grossly disproportionate number of voters being got included in a hush hush manner by some vested interests. Though clarification was given by the authorities terming it as a twist of the statement by media still the doubt in the mind of some political leaders remained lurking.
The fears of these political parties do not seem to be founded on sound ground because the relevant provisions of law in this regard are very clear and transparent. There is some confusion in certain quarters that only the permanent residents of the UT are eligible for casting votes in the Assembly elections. It was so when we had a separate law for determining the eligibility for casting of vote. With the abrogation/dilution of the article 370 the then State Act and the Rules governing the preparation of the Electoral rolls have been done away with and now the rolls have to be prepared in accordance with the provisions of the Central Act and the Rules made thereunder.
The relevant provisions in this regard are enshrined in sections 13A to 32 of the Representation of the People Act,1950 and rule 4 to rule 35 of The Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. The cursory reading of these provisions shows that an elaborate procedure has been provided for under them for revision of the electoral rolls. Thus the most important ingredient of eligibility has been clearly laid down that the elector should be of 18 years of age usually on the first of January of the year( 1st of October, 2022 in case of present revision) when revision is to be carried out. Secondly the person desirous of enrollment must ordinarily be residing in the constituency in which his name is required to be registered. The condition of being an ordinary resident is somewhat mystifying and seems to have caused a lot of prevailing confusion. The Parliamentarians in their wisdom had visualized such situations and have given eight detailed explanations to clarify any misgiving in the mind of the voter as well as the Electoral Registration machinery in this regard. The ECI has also issued detailed guidelines/ instructions in the matter. It is indeed a matter of common sense to ascertain whether a particular person ordinarily lives at a given place or not. As a thumb rule, we old timers in the Revenue department used to see that a person residing temporarily at his work place without having the regular household, the regular conveniences like a Chullah for his stay is not eligible for registration as voter. As another illustration it has been stated that the name of a service voter or a person in preventive custody has to be registered where his home is situated and not at the place of his service/custody. Similarly the ineligibility has also been defined elaborately stating that a person who is not citizen of India, is of unsound mind and stands declared so by court, is registered elector in any other constituency does not qualify to be registered as elector.
The procedure for receipt of claims and objections for entering a name in the rolls has also been designed elaborately. Every aspect of preparing and purifying the electoral rolls such as registration of new voters, objection to the existence or inclusion of a voter, as also deletion, correction and transposition of voters who have migrated or died has been dealt with profoundly. In order to bring transparency the lists of the claims and objections are required to be prepared separately by the Electoral Registration officers. These lists have to be exhibited at conspicuous places and if anyone has any grievance he and the person who has been objected to are given an opportunity of being heard and a finding in the matter is to be returned by the Electoral Registration officer. In this way the process has been made transparent in the real sense of the term. The Registration officer should not normally experience any difficulty while scrutinizing the claims and objections as the majority of claimants are likely to be the relatives of the voters already registered as such in the same rolls and they have one document or the other prescribed by the ECI to justify their claims. In case of doubt, he can scrutinize the document such as Electricity/ Water/gas connection, Aadhaar card, pass book or school record of the children of the claimant etc to ascertain whether the claimant resides ordinarily at a particular place or not.
In order to have further checks in the matter, the law provides that any person who makes a statement or declaration which is false and which he either knows or believes to be false or does not believe to be true, he shall be punished with imprisonment for a term of one year or with fine or with both. Similarly if any Electoral Registration Officer or any other employee engaged in the work of revision of rolls is guilty of any act or omission in breach of such official duty he is liable to punishment for a term ranging from three months to two years and with fine. In the light of such stringent provisions of law it is unthinkable if anybody would venture in committing willful mistakes and resort to making large scale entries of fraudulent nature as is feared by some political leaders. Odd acts of minor wrongdoing here and there can not be ruled out while carrying out such a gigantic exercise and making an issue out of the same needs to be avoided.
The demand of some political parties as voiced by Mr Masoodi in the press conference, that only permanent residents of the UT be registered in the rolls is not in accordance with the prevalent provision of law. Prior to 5 August, 2019 we were governed by two laws, one, the State law, for preparing rolls and conduct of Assembly elections and the other, the Central law for adding non-State subject voters in lists for election to the Parliament. However, much water has flown in the Chenab and Jhelum now and every person, whether he is permanent resident of the UT or not, who ordinarily resides in the UT is entitled to be registered in the rolls subject, however, to fulfilling the other conditions enumerated in the foregoing paras. Now the same set of rolls will serve the purpose for both the Assembly as well as the Parliament elections. The assertion of Masoodi Saheb that the abrogation of article 370 has been challenged in the Supreme court so the J&K Representation of the People Act, 1957 still remains in force and only permanent residents should be registered in the Assembly rolls doesn’t carry much weight in view of the fact that the operation of the amendment of the constitution, as also the related law/order do not stand stayed/suspended by the Supreme Court.
Though the Electoral Registration authorities are responsible for preparing the rolls carrying genuine voters only, some responsibility is cast upon the political parties also to point out lapse, if any, committed by any functionary of the Registration machinery. Many political parties used to have well oiled apparatus up to the level of polling stations and they used to act as watchdogs over the working of the employees engaged in Electoral Registration /Election work. The parties should activate this machinery and ensure that no employee dares to manipulate any bogus entry in the rolls. It has been seen that even senior leaders of different parties used to monitor various activities of the election machinery. The present author has personally seen that even the senior leaders like Vaid Vishano Dutt of BJP, Pt Mangat Ram of Congress party and Advocate Sheikh Nazir of National Conference, Sheikh Abdul Rehman of the then Lok Dal had no compunction to call on him, as the middle ranked Deputy CEO to discuss and stress for ensuring that the rolls preparations and the conduct of elections were properly carried out by all the concerned. Since the present revision is being carried out after the cataclysmic changes in our UT so many controversies are likely to erupt. It is therefore incumbent both upon the Electoral Registration supervisory staff as well as the political parties to oversee and monitor the preparation of rolls in order to maintain the purity of the rolls. The political parties on their part need to activate their field functionaries in respect of almost all the polling stations particularly the stations falling in the urban areas. The chances of any manipulation in the rural areas is almost zero as everybody knows every other body. In respect of doubtful stations even the senior party workers should be deputed to examine the lists of claims and objections being publicized by the Registration officers and ascertain their authenticity with the assistance of the local workers of the area of polling station and in case somebody is conniving to make any attempt to make a superfluous entry, the matter should be brought to the notice of higher ups. Since the rolls are prepared polling station wise so the job of detecting any manipulation becomes very easy due to the prevalence of familiarity and knowledge in the very limited area of a polling station.
It needs no emphasis that the whole exercise is being conducted under the watchful eyes of the Election Commission of India where the legacy of Seshan still pervades. It is un- thinkable that any sensible employee will dare to commit any mischief while preparing the rolls for fear of ECI. Employees are well aware of the fact that ECI does not spare anybody. They have seen the heads of even the officers at the top of hierarchy like the Chief Secretaries and the DGPs rolling at the hands of ECI. Moreover, senior officers of the rank of Commissioners/Secretaries have also been deployed as Electoral Observers and an efficient mechanism of redressal of grievances has been put in place. The political parties can bring any mistake being committed by the registration machinery to their notice for taking remedial measures.
(The author is Civil Servant)
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