AIADMK former Minister files PIL in Madras High Court for purification of electoral rolls

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) former Minister M.R. Vijayabhaskar has filed a public interest litigation petition in the Madras High Court insisting upon purification of the electoral rolls pertaining to Karur Assembly constituency before the 2026 general elections.

The plea is expected to be listed before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice Sunder Mohan. In his affidavit, the petitioner highlighted how the failure to delete fraudulent, ineligible and dead voters from the rolls could affect the poll results.

The petitioner pointed out that a citizen gets a statutory right to cast vote in elections on inclusion of his/her name in the electoral rolls and therefore it was essential to ensure such rolls are periodically revised to delete names of those who have either shifted residence or died.

Further, it was also necessary to ensure there were no multiple entries of the same names thereby paving way for casting bogus votes. The responsibility of revising the voters list rests upon Booth Level Officers (BLOs) who were expected to conduct a door-to-door verification to ensure accuracy.

“The duties and responsibilities of BLOs are not procedural and definitely not discretionary. They are essential duties that must be scrupulously carried out prior to every election. Unfortunately, during the previous general elections, these procedures were either not followed or were executed in a grossly inadequate manner,” he complained.

He went on to state that “such inaction and deficient implementation had resulted in the inclusion of unwanted, fraudulent and duplicate entries in the electoral rolls thereby creating a fertile ground for unscrupulous elements to cast counterfeit votes and manipulate the democratic process.”

The petitioner also submitted the BLOs must not only be competent and physically able but also possess the integrity to resist political pressures so that they could perform their duties without fear or favour. However, “disturbingly, in certain areas within my constituency, persons with known affiliations to the ruling political party (DMK) have been appointed as BLOs,” he alleged.

Further, as per the prescribed procedure, the BLOs were expected to handover the booth slips in person to the voters. However, more often than not, the officers end up handing over the booth slips to the political party agents thereby paving way for casting of counterfeit votes, the petitioner said.