Jamia Nizamia issues fatwa against casting bogus votes

The Jamia Nizamia seminary issued a fatwa against bogus voting and impersonation during the polling.

The opinion of the one of the oldest Islamic seminary in the city gains significance in light of political parties approaching higher courts to weed out bogus votes.

The fatwa was issued by the Jamia Nizamia on Monday after some persons approached it and submitted two questions and sought to know about bogus voting in the perspective of Islam. The questions were whether any person can cast a vote other than on his name and can any women clad in burkha cast a vote by impersonating as some other lady during the elections.

The seminary said it was permitted according to the Sharia to participate in the



elections and cast genuine votes which was a democratic and legal exercise. Nevertheless, it stated that it was wrong or unIslamic to cast vote of any other person and amounts to cheating and people should refrain from such things.

Several political parties in the State especially in the city are campaigning against casting bogus voting and in turn appealing to the voters to cast only their vote.

Recently, the Election Commission of India said that it had removed considerable numbers of bogus votes from the electoral rolls in the State. However, the political parties said that several thousand names of persons who were dead or migrated to other areas continue in the electoral rolls.