THE TN State Information Commission (SIC), established under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, has directed the Chennai Corporation to pay a compensation of `10,000 to an applicant for disabling him and two of his family members from exercising their franchise in the 2016 general Assembly elections and for having passed on the blame to the computer for deletion of their names from the voter list.

Wondering how an electronic gadget could delete the names on its own and fixing the ‘error’ on the part of the officials in charge of holding the elections, State Information Commissioner S Muthuraj awarded the compensation while passing orders on an application from one G Masilamani of Anna Nagar, recently. The amount is to be paid to the applicant within 30 days.

According to Masilamani, he was living in the 9th Street for over 30 years with his wife and son and they were provided with voter ID cards in March 2016. However, they could not exercise their franchise as their names did not find a place in the voter list.

He sent an application under Sec. 6(3) of the Act to the Public Information Officer (PIO) attached to Zone 8 of the Corporation of Chennai in Shenoy Nagar on August 3, 2016, seeking reasons for the deletion of their names from the voter list.  By a letter dated October 5, 2016, the PIC replied that the names were present in the voter list issued on September 1, 2016.

As there was enormous delay in filing the reply which lacked details, Masilamani preferred his first appeal. As there had been no reply, he filed the present second appeal with the State Information Commission under Sec. 19(3) of the Act. He alleged that their names were wantonly deleted before the elections and included after the elections were over.

During the enquiry, the PIO and Corporation Assistant Revenue Officer, who were present before the SIC, submitted that none of the officials concerned had deleted the names. The names got deleted automatically due to the computer error, they claimed.

Taking a serious objection to the submissions, Muthuraj wondered how the electronic gadget would erase particular names from the voter list on its own. This showed the lethargic attitude and carelessness of the officials concerned. There are several stages between the preparation of the voter list and declaration of the results.

At all these stages, computers were used. In countries such as India, voters’ participation in elections is the basic structure of democracy. The principle of democracy should be maintained at any cost. The officials involved in the process are no laymen. They are well educated and appointed after writing competitive exams. But, they do not show their commitment and calibre once they are appointed.  Blaming the computers was only to protect officials, who were involved in the election process, Muthuraj said and ordered the compensation.”