Will study HC order concerning 6 names deleted during SIR Goa CEO

Panaji, Nov 5 (PTI) Goa’s Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Goel on Thursday said they would study the Bombay High Court order directing restoration of six names from a family that were struck off the voter list during the SIR exercise in the coastal state.

    Earlier in the day, the HC ordered the Election Commission of India (ECI) to restore in the electoral rolls the names of Goa resident Paresh Salgaonkar and his five family members.

    Asked about the HC order, Goel said they learnt about it through media reports.

    “We will study the order. After that, we will do whatever is implementable at our level. If we can do it at our level, we will do it. However, if we need assistance from the ECI, we will request it to comply,” he said.

    Goel said he will not be able to comment unless he goes through the “exact wording in the order”.

    The Goa bench of the HC, comprising Justices Valmiki Menezes and Amit Jamsandekar, gave the direction while hearing a petition filed by Salgaonkar and his family members, residents of the Santa Cruz assembly constituency.

    Advocate Vivek Rodrigues, representing Salgaonkar and his family, told reporters that the HC ordered that the petitioners’ names be restored to the electoral rolls within 10 days.

    The Salgaonkars had challenged the removal of their names from the voters’ list by the ECI during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise after their Form 8 application for a change of address was rejected.

    Rodrigues said that the name of the petitioner (Salgaonkar) was on the electoral rolls earlier, and he had been casting his vote since 1995, but his name was deleted because he had changed his residence.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)