Kerala HC asks EC to ensure ‘one person votes only once’

KOCHI: In an interim order, the Kerala High Court on Monday asked the Election Commission to ensure that a voter in the state votes only once.

The interim order came after the court heard the petition of opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala after he approached the court seeking its immediate intervention in the "fraudulent" voters list for the April 6 Assembly polls.

When this petition came up last week, the court directed the chief electoral officer to come with a detailed explanation on this serious issue.

The chief electoral officer on Monday informed the court that they were in the process of seriously looking into this issue and a clear picture on this would emerge by Monday evening.

Following this the court passed an interim order asking the election officials to ensure that a voter be allowed to vote only once and posted the case for further hearing on Tuesday.

Chennithala's public interest litigation, according to him, was a forced one as he had approached the chief electoral officer, in the state five times with a complaint that there are over four lakh fraudulent voters in the 140 Assembly constituencies, having their names in multiple constituencies.

He has been releasing the details of this 'duplication' in the past week in various constituencies that he has been touring.

Chennithala in his petition has demanded all such people, who have multiple identity cards, should not be allowed to vote and action under the Indian Penal Code and the Peoples Representation Act should be taken against all the government officials who played a role in issuing such fake cards.

Kerala goes to the polls on April 6 to elect 140 legislators.