In SC, NGO accuses A.P. govt. of ‘interference’ in preparation of electoral roll

The petition said the State had issued a government order on June 22, 2019 to appoint “village volunteers”.

Citizens for Democracy, an NGO whose secretary is a former State Election Commissioner, is pressing the Supreme Court to hear its petition that the ruling regime in Andhra Pradesh is employing its own party cadre in the preparation of the electoral roll ahead of the General and Assembly elections in 2024.

The case was listed before a Bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and P.K. Mishra on November 6. However, Justice Mishra recused from the case. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocate Vipin Nair, for the NGO, are likely to urge the Chief Justice of India on November 9 to list the case early before another Bench of the apex court.

“The writ is being filed to maintain the sanctity in the electoral process and to restrain the Andhra Pradesh government’s blatant interference in the preparation of the electoral rolls for the parliamentary and Assembly election process through involvement of gram volunteers/ward volunteers and village secretariats/ward secretariats, who are basically the party cadre of the ruling party, instead of involving teachers in the process of registration of voters,” the petition submitted.

The petition said the State had issued a government order on June 22, 2019 to appoint “village volunteers”. “Lakhs of volunteers —primary party members of the ruling YSRC Party — were appointed by the State government,” the petition said.

The NGO submitted that the “village volunteer system is a parallel body to the existing panchayat raj system and is posing a serious threat to the effective functioning of local self-governance institutions as envisaged under the 73rd Constitutional Amendment”.

Further, the plea alleged that party cadre/volunteers were given “additional duties of collecting sensitive personal data in the garb of many governmental schemes as well as issuing the Election Photo Identity Card [EPIC] and seeding Aadhaar with EPIC, etc”.

“In the name of RTGS [Real-time Governance Society], the State of Andhra Pradesh has created a profiling tool, which is being misused for anti-democratic activity to influence voters and elections… The illegal data collected through the volunteers are analysed and made use in elections,” the petition submitted.