Why Supreme Court Warned Election Commission It May Strike Down Entire SIR Exercise: 5 Points

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday warned the Election Commission that it will set aside the entire Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar if any illegality is found in the method adopted by the poll body to update the electoral rolls.The SIR was conducted in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections, scheduled to be held in the October–November period (schedule yet to be announced), to revise the voter list.This is not the first time such an exercise has been conducted, as similar revisions have taken place in the past to update the electoral rolls after a given period of time, such as the inclusion of new voters, removal of voters who are deceased, migrated, or transferred their vote, adding further transparency to the electoral process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LhXwGWxq54

However, this time, the SIR in Bihar—first after it was last conducted in 2003—became a hot political topic after the poll body in draft electoral roll removed 65 lakh voters from Bihar, claiming many of them were either dead, migrated, transferred their vote, or had their name included in multiple voter lists. But these outcomes were made an issue by Opposition parties, who doubted the Election Commission’s SIR exercise and alleged that it was colluding with the Centre to steal votes by removing names of existing voters. It was after these allegations that the matter went to court.During the earlier hearings on the matter, the top court termed the SIR a legitimate exercise. But as Opposition parties were not satisfied, the poll body asked them to furnish cases where they have found that name of genuine voters were removed from the draft list.

Why Supreme Court Warned EC Over SIR?

1. The Supreme Court has warned the poll body that it will set aside the entire SIR exercise if any illegalities are found in the procedure undertaken by it.
2. The Supreme Court has told the Election Commission that its final order in this matter will be applicable pan-India and not just to Bihar.
3. The SC said that the SIR exercise will be invalidated if constitutional safeguards were compromised. “Our judgement in Bihar SIR will be applicable for pan-India SIR,” it said, adding that it can’t give a piecemeal opinion on Bihar SIR.
4. During the hearing, the SC told the EC that it was presuming the poll body, as a constitutional authority, is following the law and mandatory rules in conducting the voter revision process.
5. The matter has reached the court after Opposition parties raised doubts over the SIR exercise, claiming that names of genuine voters were deleted from the electoral rolls without proper verification.

The Supreme Court has set October 7 as the final date of hearing on the matter over please challenging the validity of the Bihar SIR.