New Delhi: Amid the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls, the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer on Monday countered questions raised by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) about the enrolment of GNCTD cabinet ministers at places other than their ordinary residence.
The CEO said that as per the ECI’s instructions, “All names of members of the Judiciary, public representatives, holders of declared offices and personalities from fields of arts, culture, journalism, sports, and public services earlier flagged in the electoral database have been included in the draft Electoral Rolls, so that necessary documents can also be collected during the period of Claims and Objections.”
“It is also informed that as per Section 20 (1B) of the Representation of the People Act 1950, A member of Parliament or of the Legislature of a State shall not during the term of his office cease to be ordinarily resident in the constituency in the electoral roll of which he is registered as an elector at the time of his election as such member, by reason of his absence from that constituency in connection with his duties as such member,” said the CEO in a statement.
The CEO added that it is also informed that as per Section 20 (4) of the Representation of the People Act 1950, “Any person holding any office in India declared by the President in consultation with the Election Commission to be an office to which the provisions of this sub-section apply, shall be deemed to be ordinarily resident on any date in the constituency in which, but for the holding of any such office he would have been ordinarily resident on that date.”
The offices that have been declared by the President by Notification No. S.O. 959, dated the April 18, 1960 include: The President of India; Vice-President of India; Governors of States; Cabinet Ministers of the Union or of any State; Deputy Chairman and Members of the Planning Commission; Ministers of State of the Union or of any State; Deputy Ministers of the Union or any State; Speaker of the House of the People or of any State Legislative Assembly; Chairman of any State Legislative Council; Lieutenant Governors of Union territories; Deputy Speaker of the House of the People or of any State Legislative Assembly; Deputy Chairman of the Council of States or of any State Legislative Council and the Parliamentary Secretaries of the Union or of any State.
Earlier, the AAP questioned the ongoing SIR process after the party’s National Convenor and former Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, went missing from the Delhi electoral rolls.
Delhi AAP Unit President Saurabh Bharadwaj questioned how the former three-time CM and his family members could fail to be mapped by the Election Commission.
The notice to the AAP National Convenor, he said, had raised serious questions over the voter-mapping exercise and the Election Commission’s role in giving legal cover to the SIR process.
Meanwhile, Delhi BJP President Harsh Malhotra on Monday directed the party’s teams overseeing the SIR exercise and all BLAs to provide legal assistance to all those who have received notices from the Election Office, while also helping them fill Form 6 to get their votes newly registered or renewed.
The Delhi BJP President welcomed the clarification issued by the Election Office, stating that the voter list published recently is not the final list and that people can get their names newly registered as voters until October. These names will be included in the final voter list to be published in November.
The Delhi BJP President said that all Delhi residents who do not have a voter registration anywhere else in the country can provide details of their own or their family members’ voter registration from 2002, wherever they were residing in the country, and get their names registered in Delhi by filling Form 6.
Malhotra said the only thing we need to ensure is that every citizen can have their name registered on the voter list in only one place in the country.
(IANS)
