~By Rajesh Kumar

The apex court on Friday dismissed Congress leader Kamal Nath’s petition seeking soft copies of the draft electoral rolls in text mode format for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections to avert unscrupulous actions.

A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan also rejected Congress leader’s prayer seeking issuance of directions for conducting Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) verification on random basis for 10 per cent of the votes.

The bench said: “We find force in the submission of the ECI. Clause 11.2.2.2 of the Election Manual uses the expression ‘text mode’. The draft electoral roll in that mode, i.e. text mode, has been supplied to the petitioner.

“The clause nowhere says that the draft electoral roll has to be put up on the Chief Electoral Officer’s website in a ‘searchable PDF’. Therefore, the petitioner cannot claim, as a right, that the draft electoral roll should be placed on the website in a ‘searchable mode’. It has only to be in ‘text mode’ and it is so provided.”

While dismissing the prayer seeking issuance of directions for conducting VVPAT verification on random basis for 10 per cent of the votes, the bench relied on the judgment passed in Prakash Joshi v. Election Commission of India in October 2017 wherein similar plea was decided.

—India Legal Bureau