Supreme Court Seeks ECI's Response On Pleas Challenging SIR In Tamil Nadu & West Bengal; Asks HCs To Not Hear Same Issue

The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Election Commission of India on the petitions filed challenging the poll body's Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and West Bengal.A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi also directed the High Courts to keep in abeyance the petitions filed in relation to the SIR of these states and Bihar. The Court will hear the matter on November 26."Since this Court is seized of the matter pertaining to legality of SIR of electoral rolls in various states including Bihar, WB, TN, Pondicherry, etc., we request jurisdictional HCs to keep in abeyance/defer the writ proceedings if any filed in those HCs touching the validity of SIR in their states," the bench observed in the order.The petitions have been filed by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)(through Secretary RS Bharati), Communist Party of India (Marxist)(through Secretary P Shanmugham), Mostari Banu of West Bengal Congress, Dola Sen of the All India Trinamool Congress, etc.At the outset, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, for the DMK Secretary RS Bharati, submitted that a uniform direction to conduct SIR across several states was unreasonable. He said that November-December was the time of heavy rains in Tamil Nadu, and most officers might be occupied with flood relief works. In December, there will be Christmas vacations, during which people are unlikely to be present at their native places. January is the harvest -Pongal season. Sibal said that this period is the most unsuitable to hold SIR in the State of Tamil Nadu.Sibal said that the October 27 order of the ECI has made a departure from the June order, because it says that documents need to be submitted only after the publication of the draft list, if the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) asks for them. Justice Kant then said, "So whatever deficiency was there, they have cured."Sibal then said that in many rural areas, there is no connectivity, and uploading of documents would be impossible."Why you people are so apprehensive? They will have to do it," Justice Kant said. Sibal asked, "What was the great hurry?" in carrying out the exercise.Sibal, saying that he was also representing in the petition challenging the exercise in West Bengal, said that the situation is much worse there.Justice Kant then observed, "You people are acting as if the electoral roll revision is happening for the first time! We are also aware of the ground realities." Sibal replied that the earlier revisions were carried out over a period of years, whereas here, only one month's time has been granted. Suggesting that the ECI must be trusted, Justice Kant said, "A constitutional authority is doing this. Anybody can commit procedural deficiencies. Point out, they will rectify."Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, for the ECI, quipped that this was a case where States were competing to show who was more backward. Dwivedi also urged the Court to restrain High Courts from dealing with similar matters to avoid the possibility of conflicting orders being passed. The bench agreed to pass such an order.Advocate Balaji Srinivasan, for the All India Anna Dravida Kazhagam (AIADMK), submitted that the party has filed an impleading application supporting the SIR. He also expressed surprise at the ruling party (DMK) saying that there was no connectivity in the rural areas of Tamil Nadu.The bench suggested that AIADMK file a fresh writ petition instead of filing an impleading application if they wanted SIR to be done in a particular manner. Srinivasan replied that he was supporting the SIR and was not challenging any order.N R Elango Senior Advocate assisted by Vivek Singh AOR also appeared in the DMK's matter.BackgroundBihar SIRA bunch of petitions were filed before the Supreme Court challenging legality of the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision of Bihar electoral rolls. The petitioners alleged large-scale exclusions and irregularities in the conduct of SIR. They also questioned the ECI's power to conduct the special intensive revision.Over a course of time, the Court issued several directions, including allowing the use of Aadhaar card as one of the documents for inclusion in the voters' list and directing publication of details of excluded voters. On October 16, the matter was adjourned after noting ECI's submission that it was in the process of publishing the final list of voters in Bihar. During that hearing, Advocate Prashant Bhushan urged the bench to direct the Election Commission to publish the names added and deleted in the final list of voters. However, the bench said it would wait to see what the poll body publishes and expressed confidence that the Commission would fulfil its responsibility.Elections in the state were scheduled to be held on November 6 and 11 and are in their final phase.Tamil Nadu SIRTamil Nadu SIR is challenged by political party DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), Communist Party of India (Marxist) and State MLA K...

Supreme Court Seeks ECI's Response On Pleas Challenging SIR In Tamil Nadu & West Bengal; Asks HCs To Not Hear Same Issue

Debby Jain

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