New Delhi: Delhi High Court Thursday held that booth-level agents (BLAs) of political parties cannot be liable for false details in enumeration forms during Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Justice Amit Bansal said BLAs were liable only for verifiable information like the elector’s photograph. “BLA can only be made liable in terms of Section 31 of Representation of People Act for information that can be verified by the BLA, i.e., the photograph on the enumeration form matches with the identity of the elector,” the judge said. “The said information would be exclusively within the knowledge of the elector concerned. Though BLAs would have full responsibility for the forms of dead or shifted voters as these are filled by them based on information gathered by them, they cannot be held liable for the unverifiable information, HC said.
The court added that a BLA could not be in a position to verify all information on an enumeration form. The order came on a petition by Delhi Congress president Devender Yadav and the chairman of its booth management committee.