NEW DELHI — The Telangana High Court has directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to consider providing Enumeration Forms during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Urdu.
The directive was issued on Monday during a hearing on the petition challenging the ECI decision to print and distribute Enumeration Forms exclusively in Telugu outside the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limit.
Considering the constituencies where the Urdu-speaking population amounts to more than 20 per cent, Urdu forms should be provided as an option, said Justice B Vijaysen Reddy of the Telangana High Court.
The SIR exercise in Telangana began on June 25.
Senior Counsel V Raghunath, appearing for the petitioner, contended that restricting the forms to Telugu discriminates against linguistic minorities, migrant populations and a sizeable section of Urdu-speaking voters in the state. He argued that voters should not have to depend on Booth Level Officers for translated forms and that access to forms in a language understood by voters is a constitutional right.
The counsel for the ECI submitted that Telugu is the first official language of the state and that English forms are being used in the Hyderabad district following consultations with political parties.
It was further submitted that Booth Level Officers carry dummy forms in Urdu to assist voters.
While declining to interfere with the present arrangement, Justice Reddy observed that the issue is a sensitive one and remarked that the Election Commission, being an institution conducting elections in the world’s largest democracy, “should have answers and solutions and should not say it is not possible”, reports Telangana Today.
The judge also orally observed that democracy represents the will of the people and questioned why bilingual or multilingual forms could not be considered when several other public documents are made available in multiple languages.
The case was adjourned after directing the Election Commission to communicate its decision on providing Urdu forms by the next date of hearing.
