SC seeks ECI response on pleas against SIR in TN, WB, Kerala

THe sublime margaret court on midweek emphasised that weeding come out deadened voters from electoral rolls is essential to deny any undue advantage to political parties even as the Election Commission of India accused political parties and leaders for creating a “scare” against the special intensive revision (SIR) carried out in multiple states for this purpose.Hearing a clutch of petitions which challenged the SIR conducted by the ECI in Bihar and in states of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala where the process is underway, a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi said that despite the allegation that crores of voters will be disenfranchised in Bihar, following the SIR exercise, about 366,000 voters who have not appealed against their deletion.“Political workers know very well who are the dead voters and those who are alive and have migrated,” the bench said, adding, “It all depends on the political gradient depending on your power. The party which is stronger gets all the votes of dead voters. That is why dead voters need to be weeded out.”Senior advocate Kapil Sibal who appeared for some of the petitioners challenging the BIhar SIR process said that it was undisputed that ECI has power to conduct SIR but he objected to the manner in which this exercise is being conducted. “Any exercise of revising electoral rolls post-Independence must not be exclusionary or else it will be unconstitutional.”As per the present practice, Sibal said that the officer of the ECI analysing the enumeration forms filled during SIR is deciding on whether a citizen is an Indian or foreigner, which can be determined only by a quasi-judicial tribunal such as Foreigners Tribunal. “Even if one is to be excluded from the rolls, a process must be followed that is reasonable and fair,” Sibal said.The court pointed out that initially while entertaining the challenge to the Bihar SIR, the impression given to it has not come true. “Initally, it was projected in Bihar that crores of people will be excluded. We know because of our orders that did not happen. At the end, the voters who are dead and have migrated were not disputed. Ultimately over 3 lakh voters have got deleted. We even sent our para legal volunteers to reach out to the people who got excluded. But nobody came forward to say I have been excluded.”Sibal said that to assume that there are no errors in the process just because nobody came forward is not correct as there still exists remote corners in every state where the womenfolk and citizenry are illiterate and will not bother to file an appeal if they discover on the polling day that their names are excluded from the electoral rolls.The court told Sibal, “The EC says there is need for SIR as there are certain entries which are of doubtful integrity. Can we say they lack the power or jurisdiction to do this. In a country with such a large population, does it not require ECI to undertake an aggressive, intensive revision that it was to address these concerns it had heard the matter. If there are instances when a person who is a bonafide citizen has been deleted, we are looking for such cases to come before us.”As the arguments of Sibal remained inconclusive, the court posted the matter on Thursday.Meanwhile, the ECI sought time to file responses to the other petitions challenging SIR in Tamil Nadu, WB and Kerala, where the process of enumeration will complete on December 4 and the publication of the draft electoral roll will take place on December 9. The Kerala government had also filed a petition seeking a limited relief to postpone the SIR due to the local body elections in the state on December 9 and 11.The court was also hearing other petitions filed by political parties - -Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), senior political functionaries of the Kerala Congress, Indian Union Muslim League and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and Trinamool Congress.Considering the urgency of Kerala, the bench posted the cases pertaining to Kerala on December 2 with similar pleas against SIR in the other two states of TN and WB to be taken up on December 4 and 9 respectively. The court directed ECI to file its response to all petitions by Monday and permitted the Kerala State Election Commission (KSEC) and the West Bengal government to respond to the pleas relating to the respective states.Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi appearing for the ECI told the court that the situation on ground was much different from what is presented in the petitions. He said, “99% of the enumeration forms have been distributed in the state and much of the work is already over.However, Sibal, along with other senior lawyers for the petitioners told the court that the situation on ground is quite different as booth level officers (BLO) entrusted with the enumeration exercise are being pressurised as many have committed suicide while some are hospitalised. “What is happening on ground is the other way round of what is stated by the ECI.”He referred to a communication by ECI which said that after December 4, the last date for submitting filled enumeration forms, there are restrictions upon the BLOs to upload the forms digitally.Dwivedi said, “I have statistics available with me to show the exercise is going on smoothly. It is these political parties and leaders who are creating a scare.”The bench observed, “If we feel that an alarming situation has happened in the state and a large number of people have been left out, we can say you have made out a good case for us to intervene.”The Kerala government which sought deferment of SIR warned of an “administrative impasse” as about 176,000 personnel are required for the local body election, apart from 68,000 security personnel.