New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday warned the Election Commission of Inia (ECI) of scrapping the entire Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of assembly polls if any illegality is found. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi made these remarks while hearing a petition challenging the SIR in Bihar.
“If we find any illegality in the methodology adopted by ECI at any stage of Bihar SIR, the entire exercise will be set aside,” the apex court said.
The apex court stated that that the poll body being a constitutional authority was following the law during the SIR.
The court also stated that its verdict is applicable across entire country. “Our judgment in Bihar SIR will be applicable for Pan-India SIR," the bench said, clarifying that it could not stop the poll panel from conducting the similar exercise for revision of electoral roll across the country.
However, the bench allowed petitioners against the Bihar SIR exercise to also argue on the pan-India SIR on October 7.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court issued notice on a plea seeking the recall of the September 8 top court order directing the poll panel to include Aadhaar card as the 12th prescribed document in the Bihar SIR.
Supreme Court’s September 8 Order:
The top court, on September 8, directed that Aadhaar card "must" be included as an identity proof of voters in the SIR exercise of electoral rolls in Bihar. It had asked the EC to implement the direction by September 9. Thought the bench of Justices Kant and Bagchi added the aadhaar card to the list of 11 prescribed documents in the SIR exercise, but made it clear it would not be a proof of citizenship.
The SIR of voter list in Bihar is the first since 2003. It sparked a massive political row, with the opposition parties alleging that the exercise is aimed at giving advantage to the ruling JDU-BJP government by depriving people of their right to vote.
The EC has maintained SIR's purpose was to clean the voter list by deleting names of people who are dead, possess duplicate voter cards or illegal immigrants.
The assembly elections in Bihar are scheduled to take place later this year.
