HC dismisses Dispur's plea on D voters, again

BY OUR STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Oct 13: Keeping in view the upcoming assembly elections scheduled next year, the State government is leaving no stone unturned to safeguard the D voters. But due to the bold stand taken by the judiciary, the government is repeatedly failing to do so. It may be mentioned that, one Manija Khatun was declared foreigner by the Foreigners Tribul, but she filed a petition in the Gauhati High Court seeking revision of the order and in 2011, the High Court dismissed her petition. Interestingly, her me was there on the voters list, for which the High Court asked for a reply from the State government and questioned, how the me of a foreigner got into the voters list. At that time, the State government filed a petition asking the High Court to allow D Voters to cast their votes.

Just before the assembly elections of 2011, the High Court on March, 2011 dismissed the plea and said that those, whose cases are pending in the Foreigners Tribul and those who have the ‘D’ tag against their me in the voters list cannot be allowed to enjoy voting rights. However, recently the Assam government again moved the High Court, and this time the State argued that unless and until someone is not declared a foreigner by the Foreigners Tribul, they should be allowed to enjoy their to franchise. Hearing this plea on Tuesday, Justice BK Sarma and Rumi Kumari Phukan rejected the plea once again.