Lok Sabha MP and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The plea was mentioned today before Chief Justice of India Surya Kant by Advocate Nizamuddin Pasha, seeking a listing alongwith similar pending matters. The CJI said he would check and list the case along with similar cases....
Lok Sabha MP and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The plea was mentioned today before Chief Justice of India Surya Kant by Advocate Nizamuddin Pasha, seeking a listing alongwith similar pending matters. The CJI said he would check and list the case along with similar cases.
The petition, filed through AoR Lzafeer Ahmad BF, submits that the implementation of SIR has imperiled the franchise of eligible citizens through departures from safeguards, warranting constitutional and remedial directions.
The petition raises questions concerning the exercise of ECI's constitutional powers, including whether such powers may be exercised without collective decision-making by the Commission, whether statutory forms and procedures may be altered through software, whether software-engineered classifications and objections may displace the statutory jurisdiction of Electoral Registration Officers and whether opaque procedures, differential treatment of electors, and arbitrary inclusion and deletion practices violate Articles 14, 15(1), 21, 325 and 326 of the Constitution.
Owaisi seeks judicial enforcement of the existing constitutional and statutory framework, together with directions to ensure transparency, accountability and protection of every eligible citizen's right to vote.
The plea states that it does not wish to re-open the question of ECI's authority to undertake an intensive revision of electoral rolls (as already upheld by the Court in Bihar SIR judgment). It says that the question raised is rather:
"Whether the ECI has exercised that authority in accordance with the Constitution, the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, and the other procedural safeguards governing the exercise?"
Owaisi avers that the availability of the power to ECI does not foreclose judicial scrutiny of the manner and legality of its exercise. The prayers sought include:
(i) Declare that the decisions affecting SIR not duly authorized in accordance with law including Section 18 of the CEC Act are liable to be set aside;
(ii) Declare that the forms prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 cannot be superseded or supplemented by alternative forms or substantive conditions introduced through portal modifications or executive instructions unsupported by law;
(iii) Direct the ECI to forthwith restore Form 6 on the ECINET portal to the form prescribed under the 1960 Rules and direct that no application for inclusion in the electoral roll be obstructed, rejected or kept pending on account of the applicant's inability or refusal to answer the additional declaration, and that every application so obstructed, or rejected be received and decided afresh in accordance with law;
(iv) Declare that no elector may be excluded or required to re-establish eligibility solely based on software-generated flags;
(v) Direction quashing the additional declaration introduced in the online Form 6 on ECINET, and deletions shown to have been effected in violation of the prescribed procedure;
(vi) Constitute an independent Committee to audit ERONET, ECINET and the BLO application, examine the legality and distributional impact of additions and deletions, and recommend safeguards;
(vii) Direction to the ECI and Union to disclose records, file notings, correspondence and legal or administrative advice relied upon in formulating and implementing SIR;
(viii) Suspension of the SIR process pending the hearing and final disposal of the petition.
Recently, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and 9 INDIA Bloc leaders filed a writ petition in the Court challenging SIR.
Apart from Congress leaders Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, Saugata Roy (Trinamool Congress-Mamata Banerjee), Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Tejashwi Prasad Yadav (RJD), Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena UBT), MA Baby (CPI(M)), D Raja (CPI), Mahua Majhi (JMM), Supriya Sule (NCP Sharad Pawar) and ET Muhammed Basheer (IUML) are the other petitioners.