The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed serious concern about the time of special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter list in the Bihar assembly elections to be held in November by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Questioning the time of the move, the court did not stop the process citing practical and legal grounds. A bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Joymalya Bagchi questioned the Election Commission’s decision to start amendment a few months before the election and said that the step “attacks the root of democracy and votes.
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Justice Dhulia pointed to the possible impacts of amending the voter list so close to the election, saying, “If you want to check citizenship under the SIR of the voter list in Bihar, you should have already taken action> It is a little late.” However, the court rejected the petitioners’ plea that the Election Commission did not have the right to make such amendments. The bench said that amending the voter list is the constitutional responsibility of the Election Commission and emphasized that this was done in Bihar in 2003.
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During the hearing, the Election Commission defended the SIR, saying that it is necessary to maintain the integrity of the voter list by adding eligible voters and removing ineligible voters. The Commission reiterated that Aadhaar is not a legitimate evidence of citizenship, and said that according to Article 326 of the Constitution, only Indian citizens are entitled to voting. On behalf of the Election Commission, senior advocate Dwivedi questioned, if the Election Commission does not have the right to amend the voter list, then who has it? He also assured the court that no person’s name would be removed from the voter list until he is given an opportunity to present his side.
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The bench also questioned the Election Commission keeping Aadhaar excluding the SIR process and said that the cases of citizenship come under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs, not the Election Commission. Challenging the decision of the Election Commission, more than 10 petitions have been filed in the apex court, including a petition of an NGO Association for Democratic Reforms. These prominent petitioners include RJD MP Manoj Jha, Mahua Moitra of Trinamool Congress, K. Venugopal of Congress, NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule, D Raja of CPI, Harinder Singh Malik of SP, Arvind Sawant of Shiv Sena (UBT), Sarfaraz Ahmed of JMM and Dipankarya Bhattakaraya.