Gauhati HC stays inclusion of 218 Brus in Mizoram voter list

GUWAHATI: The Aizawl bench of the Gauhati high court on Wednesday stayed the inclusion of 218 Brus as voters in the electoral rolls of Mizoram's Kolasib assembly constituency after the NGO Coordination Committee of Mizoram filed a public interest litigation challenging the validity of their inclusion.
Justice Michael Zothankhuma, after admitting the PIL against Kolasib deputy commissioner Arun T, set the hearing on Monday and asked the chief electoral officer, the district electoral officer of Kolasib and all others involved in the enrolment process to appear before it.
With the admission of the PIL, the NGO Coordination Committee, which filed the PIL, called off its protest against the deputy commissioner. "We have called off our protest because we have moved the high court with the PIL. These 218 new Bru voters were enrolled on October 27. We are challenging the enrolment process," NGO Coordination Committee chairperson Vanlalruata told TOI.
The Kolasib unit of the NGO Coordination Committee has been up in arms against the deputy commissioner (also the district's election officer), claiming that he included the names of 218 Brus from Tripura's refugee camps without verifying their antecedents and not holding any public hearing.
Since last week, Mizoram has been in the grip of intermittent protests over Bru voters - specifically, where they will vote from. While the Brus want to vote from their camps in Tripura, the Mizos want them to vote in the state. On November 6, while the office of the chief electoral officer was surrounded by thousands of protesters in Aizawl over this issue, a mob stormed the office of the deputy commissioner in Kolasib claiming "lapses" in procedure. The protesters clashed with police, who resorted to firing tear-gas shells.
Later, the organization served a 'Quit Notice' to the deputy commissioner, giving him a November 13 deadline to leave the state. They also wrote to governor K Rajasekharan, chief secretary Arvind Ray and the office of the CEO saying that they "did not have confidence in him to conduct the election to the state assembly." On Wednesday, a day after the deadline expired, MNCC workers did not allow him to attend office.
This is the second time the Mizo civil society has initiated a campaign against an electoral officer in the run-up to the assembly election, scheduled on November 28. Chief electoral officer SB Shashank stirred a hornet's nest when he complained to the EC about principal secretary (home) Lalnunmawia Chuaungo's "interference" with the electoral process by questioning the need for higher security during election and the arrangements being made to accommodate Bru voters. The sustained widespread protests against Shashank ended only after he was summoned to Delhi and the EC sought a panel of names to replace him.