Clerical Mistake Holds Up Voting Right For 22 Years

SILCHAR: Call it incompetence or lack of intelligence on the part of authorities concerned, a genuine Indian citizen lost his voting right for 22 long years. He still gropes in the dark even after approaching the Gauhati High Court and the Chief Election Commission. The fact of the matter is that Nagendra Chandra Das, resident of Banskandi under Lakhipur subdivision of Cachar, was shocked and dismayed to find ‘D’ tagged against his name during the intensive revision of electoral rolls of Lakhipur Legislative Assembly of 1997. When Das challenged the issue with the Electoral Registration Officer of Lakhipur, it turned out to be a clerical mistake!

Interestingly, the Superintendent of Police (Border) Cachar, on query found no ‘D’ voter case registered against the name of Das in their records. The gross injustice to Das glaringly brings out the lack of coordination between the District Election Office (DEO) and the Electoral Registration Officers of the seven Assembly constituencies under its jurisdiction. The State Election Commission instituted inquiry into Das’ case by Executive Magistrate Anurag Phukan, ACS, also observed that “apart from clerical mistake, no other reason is behind ‘D’ marking against the name of Das.”

Quite funny, after fumbling with his own arbitrary order for more than 20 years, the Electoral Registration Officer of Lakhipur suddenly woke up to observe in his order dated June 1, 2018 that “Nagendra Chandra Das is a genuine Indian citizen and that necessary step to remove the ‘D’ tag against his name from the electoral roll of 2018 may be taken whenever the e-link is made available.” It is now like a Hobson’s choice before the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) of Lakhipur. The dilemma of ERO can well be understood from the affidavit filed by Diganta Das, Joint Chief Electoral Officer, Assam , before the Gauhati High Court vide case no. 1288/2016. In para 7 of the affidavit, it is stated that the tag ‘D’ voter from the electoral roll can’t be removed without an order of the Foreigners’ Tribunal.

Finding no way out, Nagendra Chandra Das approached Gauhati High Court vide case no. WP(C) 492/2019. After perusal of documents and identical cases on record, Judge Ujjal Bhuyan gave direction to ERO of Lakhipur to forward the case of the petitioner to the SP Cachar within 60 days from the day of judgement i.e., March 19, 2019. Thereafter, the SP shall make the reference to the Foreigners’ Tribunal within a period of 30 days. The High Court also made a significant observation that initiation of proceeding after making a person ‘D’ cannot be delayed indefinitely and it has to be decided one way or the other by the Foreigners’ Tribunal within a reasonable time.

Strangely, ERO Lakhipur sits over the judgement of the High Court. “It is a gross violation of the order of the Gauhati High Court,” pointed out Dharmananda Deb, Advocate, Silchar Bar Association. The big question is, when will Nagendra Chandra Das get justice and his voting right restored? According to Deb, 71 such cases of genuine Indian citizens in Cachar alone are trapped in clerical mistake.

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