HC directive to home ministry on Mizoram voters list

NEW DELHI, July 27: The Delhi High Court has asked the Union home ministry to explain its stand on the inclusion of Mizoram migrants staying in the capital in the electoral list for the Lok Sabha elections to be held in September. A division bench comprising Chief Justice SN Variava and justice SK Mahajan directed the central government's standing counsel Maninder Singh to state the ministry's stand on the inclusion of Mizo migrants as voters in the capital before adjourning the matter till August 27. The bench was hearing a petition filed by Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Sangh seeking inclusion of the migrants' names in the electoral list. The argument of the counsel for petitioner was that since the commission had included the names of Kashmiri migrants in the electoral list, the same treatment should be granted to the migrants from Mizoram as they were in no condition to return to their state. The migrants had come to the capital a few years ago when insurgency was plaguing Mizoram. The counsel for the commission stated that the government had passed an ordinance allowing Kashmiris to enrol their names in the electoral list. However, there was no such ordinance with regard to migrants from any other state.