Aizawl bench of Gauhati high court stays enrolment of 218 new Bru voters

GUWAHATI: Aizawl bench of Gauhati high court on Wednesday stayed the enrolment of 218 new Bru voters living in relief camps in Tripura in the voter’s list of Kolasib assembly constituency after the state’s NGOs in a PIL challenged the legal validity of these registrations.
Justice Michael Zothankhuma after admitting the plea filed by Kolasib district unit of NGOs coordination committee against district deputy commissioner Arun T has fixed the hearing of the PIL on Monday.
Chairman of the NGO coordination committee Vanlalruata told TOI, "The Aizawl bench of Gauhati court has admitted our PIL challenging the enrolment of the 218 Bru voters. The court has stayed their enrolment and is hearing the matter on Monday."
A week after blocking the streets of Aizawl demanding chief electoral officer SB Shashank’s removal after accusing him of being “pro-Bru” and complaining against state principal secretary for home Lalninmawia Chuaungo to EC, which transferred him out of the state, the influential conglomerate of NGOs on Wednesday demonstrated before the office of the Kolasib district deputy commissioner Arun T alleging he unlawfully enrolled 217 new Bru voters without conducting hearing and physical verification.
"We have called off our protest because we have moved the high court with the PIL. These 217 new Bru voters were enrolled on October 27 and we are challenging the enrolment process…there was lapse in the process as it was done without verification and without any public hearing," Vanlalruata said.
He said that the court has asked the CEO, DEO and all those involved in the enrolment process to appear before it on Monday.
The protestors on Monday had served quit notice to Arun to leave the state by Tuesday evening and did not allow him to attend office on wednesday. The NGO committee in its letter sent to governor K Rajasekharan, cheif secretary Arvind Ray and the CEO stated that the DC "did not have confidence in him to conduct the election to the state assembly under his supervision."
On November 6, a mob had stormed into the DC’s office to express their anger against the DC, which resulted in a clash with police. The police in response fired tear-gas on the mob.
A delegation of church conglomerate Mizoram kohhran hruaitute committee (MKHC) also visited Kolasib on Wednesday.
This is the second time when the Mizo civil society has protested against an electoral officer in the run-up to the November 28 assembly election.