Notice issued to Centre, EC & Assam govt by Supreme Court on deletion of names from voters’ list

February 2: In an important development, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Union Government, Assam Government and Election Commission of India while hearing a petition challenging the ‘deletion’ of names from the voters’ list, of those who were not included in the final draft of National Register of Citizens. A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna on Friday issued the notices while hearing the petition by social activist Gopal Seth.

The petition by social activist Gopal Seth referred to the case of one Susanta Sen, a resident of Sivasagar district in Assam. The petitioner’s counsel Pijush K Roy said Sen’s name had been deleted from the voters’ list as it did not appear in draft NRC published on July 30, 2018. It was further stated in the petition that the name of Sen had appeared in the 2014 voters’ list but his name has now been deleted as it did not make it to the NRC though “name of other family members of the Petitioner have figured in the Draft NRC”.

The petition also stated that many others in the state like Mr. Sen are going to be deprived from their statutory rights because sudden deletion of their names. It needs mention here that the final draft of NRC was released on 30 July, 2018. A total of 2018. 2,89, 83,677 persons found their place in the final draft of NRC out of 3,29,91,384 applicants.