The Supreme Court on Tuesday hinted that it will not interfere in the voter roll revision conducted by the Election Commission of India in other states.
This comes a day after the Election Commission (EC)
announced polling dates for the assembly elections in Bihar, where the electoral rolls have been “purified” after the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi was hearing pleas challenging the SIR, which the opposition has been severely criticised by the opposition parties.
The SC, however, hinted that it will not interfere during the SIR in other states. “SIR exercise is absolutely the prerogative of the Election Commission of India,” it said.
The bench asked the petitioner why it wants the court to take over all functions. In a significant remark during the hearing, it said: “There could be people living unauthorised in India, they’ll fear being exposed.”
The SC asked the petitioners to provide a list of people claiming that deletion orders were not given and, hence, an appeal cannot be filed.
“Let us have a list of at least 100 people with this grievance and say that they want to file an appeal but we were not given orders,” the bench said. “The question is for who are we doing this, why are people not coming forward.”
Posting the matter for further hearing on October 9, the top court orally suggested to the EC to also compile data and prepare a note regarding 3.66 lakh deletions and 21 lakh additions after publication of the draft roll.
On September 30, the EC, while publishing the final electoral list of the poll-bound Bihar, said the total number of electors has come down by nearly 47 lakh to 7.42 crore in the final electoral roll from 7.89 crore before the SIR.
The final figure has, however, increased by 17.87 lakh from 7.24 crore electors named in the draft list issued on August 1, which had removed 65 lakh voters from the original list on various accounts, including deaths, migration and duplication of voters. While 21.53 lakh new electors have been added to the draft list, 3.66 lakh names have been removed, resulting in a net increase of 17.87 lakh.
On October 6, announcing the poll schedule, the EC said elections will be held in 121 seats of the 243-member assembly on November 6, while the remaining 122 constituencies will go to polls on November 11. The counting of votes will be held on November 14.
(With PTI inputs)
