Supreme Court upholds Election Commission's power to conduct SIR
The ruling says the poll panel acted within its powers and notes the Bihar exercise removed 65 lakh names from draft rolls.
- On Wednesday, India's Supreme Court upheld the Election Commission of India's power to conduct a Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, with a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant ruling the ECI acted within statutory authority.
- Multiple petitions, led by the Association for Democratic Reforms, challenged the ECI's authority under Article 326 of the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act 1950; the court reserved verdict January 29 after final arguments on August 12 last year.
- The SIR removed 65 lakh names from draft rolls covering 51 crore voters in 12 states and territories including West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Assam; petitioners alleged the ECI arbitrarily assumed citizenship determination powers without statutory basis.
- Petitioners criticized the judgment as endorsing hurried and discriminatory practices; Yogendra Yadav said the verdict gave the ECI "carte blanche," with at least 59 million citizens already disenfranchised and potentially 100 million eventually affected.
- The judgment will shape future SIR phases, with Chief Justice Surya Kant establishing that ECI's citizenship checks serve only electoral verification, with unverified cases referred to Central authorities under the Citizenship Act for adjudication.
21 Articles
21 Articles
SIR: Stop pointing fingers at Supreme Court
The Supreme Court in its landmark judgement on Wednesday held as constitutionally valid the Election Commission’s decision to conduct Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said, EC has the right to conduct a preliminary inquiry into citizenship of a person seeking inclusion of his name as a voter. The bench rejected the opposition’s stand that SIR was an arbitrary …
SC upholds special intensive revision of voter rolls, says exercise ‘advances free and fair polls’
Upholding the legality of the special intensive revision of electoral rolls conducted by the Election Commission, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said the exercise “advances the constitutional imperative of free and fair elections”, reported Bar and Bench.The Election Commission has the powers to conduct the exercise under Article 324 of the Constitution, read with the 1950 Representation of the People Act, Live Law quoted a bench of Chief Justic…
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