Commission Counters Rahul Gandhi's Voter Fraud Assertion with 2018 Incident Evidence
Machine-Readable Voter Lists Remain Off-Limits in India
In a recent development, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has once again reiterated its stance against sharing voter lists in a machine-readable format, citing privacy concerns and the potential for misuse. This decision is based on a 2019 Supreme Court judgment in the case Kamal Nath vs Election Commission of India.
In 2018, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath filed a writ petition demanding the publication of the electoral roll in a machine-readable format. However, the Supreme Court ruled that while the rolls must be provided in "text mode," there is no right to demand a "searchable PDF" or a fully machine-readable format. The court found the ECI's approach reasonable, emphasizing control over the format to prevent misuse.
Recently, Rahul Gandhi, the president of the Indian National Congress, made allegations of widespread voter fraud and demanded machine-readable voter lists. However, the ECI has refuted these claims, labeling them as baseless and a repetition of previous, already settled disputes, including the Kamal Nath case. The ECI reminded Gandhi of the legal procedures to raise objections and noted that no formal appeals had been filed on rolls in the states referenced by him.
The ECI has accused the Congress of attempting to mislead the public with similar tactics as in 2018. In response to Gandhi's allegations, the ECI issued a strong rebuttal, citing an example from Gandhi's presentation: a voter named Aditya Srivastava allegedly registered in three states, but this was an error that had been corrected months earlier.
Despite these controversies, political parties can access searchable voter lists online. However, the ECI maintains a firm stance against releasing full machine-readable electoral rolls. This decision has been consistently upheld by the Supreme Court and reinforced in recent disputes, including Rahul Gandhi’s allegations.
In summary, the ECI maintains technical discretion over the voter roll's format, and the current legal stance in India does not allow sharing voter lists in machine-readable format with political parties, mainly due to privacy concerns and Supreme Court orders. The ECI has reiterated that the voter list can be made available in a searchable but not machine-readable format, as the latter could be edited and misused.
- The ongoing politics surrounding the release of machine-readable voter lists in India is a subject of general news, with the Indian National Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi, advocating for such lists, but the Election Commission of India (ECI) maintaining its stance against it, citing policy-and-legislation concerns.
- The decision not to share voter lists in a machine-readable format is based on a 2019 Supreme Court judgment in the case Kamal Nath vs Election Commission of India, which deemed the ECI's approach to control the format for prevention of misuse as reasonable, and this stance has been consistently upheld in recent disputes, including Rahul Gandhi’s allegations.
