The Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena demanding that ration cards should not be used by government departments and Election Commission as a proof of residence or identity as they do not have photographs. Before the recent Lok Sabha elections,State Election Commission had issued a notification on April 11,2009,saying that ration cards among other documents may be used at polling stations to prove ones identity and residence. The court on Wednesday had held that the EC must have taken all the relevant factors into consideration while issuing the notification. If we stay the operation of its order today,it will amount to either hampering the election process or it will amount to depriving a sizable number of voters from casting their votes, observed a Division bench of Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice A R Joshi. As for the allegation that several bogus voters have already been added in the voters list based on fake ration cards,the court observed that nothing has been produced in front of the court to justify that claim. The court also held that if ration cards can be duplicated,so can passports and other surrogate photo identity documents. Besides this,the court observed that the EC had passed the notification in April and MNS had moved court only in August,when the election was around the corner. Election Commission had on Wednesday submitted before the court that while 80 percent of voters had voter ID cards,remaining 20 percent did not have any kind of photo IDs. EC submitted that it was due to this,they decided to consider ration cards as identity and residence proof.
