Supreme Court on Delhi SIR case seeks reply from Election Commission within two weeks
During the hearing of the matter, Bhushan submitted that the developments in the revision were serious and required examination.
The Supreme Court on Delhi SIR case on Tuesday issued notice to Election Commission and sought reply within two weeks. Notably, the Supreme Court issued the notice on a writ petition concerning the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Delhi, which challenges the alleged failure of the Election Commission of India and the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer to disclose the names of voters issued notices and the specific reasons for those notices, while suggesting a set of practical safeguards to ease the process for voters.
During the hearing, a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana heard the matter, in which Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan appeared for the petitioner and Senior Advocate Dama Seshadri Naidu for the Election Commission.
During the hearing of the matter, Bhushan submitted that the developments in the revision were serious and required examination. He added that 47 lakh names had first been deleted from the draft electoral roll, the majority categorised as “shifted”, and, invoking the parallel of West Bengal, that appeals against deletions could take years to be decided.
He further submitted that notices were now being issued to around 33 lakh voters, and questioned how a voter could be expected to respond to a “logical discrepancy” notice by producing one of the prescribed twelve documents.
On the other hand, Election Commission counsel DS Naidu said, “We have not received the petition copy. A week ago, he gave a representation. We could answer, before they came to court.” Justice Bagchi asked the Election Commission to investigate the complaints. The court said the notices were as if they were computer-generated.
Prashant Bhushan alleged that first 4.7 million names were deleted in Delhi. “In Bengal, you saw appeals will take another 12 years to be disposed of...47 lakhs they deleted in the draft roll...most of which the commission says have been 'shifted'...”
The Supreme Court asked the commission to send about 3 million notices. How many BLOs are deployed, it asked. The Commission informed the Court that 14000.BL0 1200 EROs.ave been deployed. The Election Commission said October 29 is the deadline and if the work is not completed, it is ready for an extension. “This is not an election state. We assure you that not a single voter's name will be removed,” it said.
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