Fake voters: SC reserves verdict on Cong leaders' plea

The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its verdict on petitions filed by senior Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Sachin Pilot alleging duplication of names in the voters' list of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

They also sought random verification of VVPAT machines in the upcoming Assembly polls in the states.

A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan concluded the hearing which saw senior advocates Kapil Sibal, representing the Congress leaders and Vikas Singh, counsel for the Election Commission of India (ECI), trading charges against each other.

Singh said attempts have been made to malign Election Commission and get favourable order by fabricating documents.

He said despite poll panel taking corrective measures in the voters' list on June 8, the Congress party alleged discrepancies in a clear attempt to malign and denigrate the institution.

Sibal strongly rebutted the charges and maintained there were duplications in the voters' list in Four assembly constituencies of Madhya Pradesh. He contended 60 lakh fake voters have been found in Madhya Pradesh alone and moreover, 24 lakhs names have been deleted from the list by the poll panel.

Kamal Nath sought directions to publish the voters' list in a "text format as per rules", instead of PDF format.