• NET Web Desk

An inconsistency in the format for voter cards in Assam has been rectified, following a petition in the Gauhati High Court.

According to a petitioner, the discrepancy in the slot for father’s/husband’s name has been corrected in Electoral Photo Identity Cards issued in recent times, although older voter identification cards still allow for this correction by filling out a special form.

Addressing a press conference here, the former MP & petitioner – Joyashree Goswami Mahanta stated, “We had filed a writ petition on the matter at the Gauhati High Court in 2016. While EPICs in all other states have a slot for ‘father’s/ husband’s name’ below the voter’s name, that slot was marked as ‘relation name” for Assam. We wanted the same rule, as in other states, to be followed here.”

The High Court had asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to file an affidavit in the matter, but they failed to do so, the petitioner claimed.

When the matter again came up for hearing this month, the ECI counsel placed before the court that the issues raised in the writ petition have been addressed.

He also placed on record Form 6 which collects all details of the electors before issuance of the EPICs, with a slot marked specifically for ‘father’s/ husband’s name’.

Justice Sanjay Kumar Medhi, in his order passed on Wednesday, said that the grievance expressed in the writ petition has been ‘substantially redressed’ by the ECI during the pendency of the petition and closed it.

Mahanta said, “We are happy that the issue has been addressed, but ECI could not give us any reply why this discrepancy crept in when we had approached them before moving the court.

“Possibility of some political conspiracy cannot be ruled out, though we don’t want to speculate on the cause,” the former Asom Gana Parishad Rajya Sabha MP added.

When asked if they will pursue the matter as to why the discrepancy had happened in the case of Assam only, the petitioner said they are yet to take any decision on it.