‘Too much passion, little reason’: SC on SIR pleas

“Too much of passion, little of reason,” the Supreme Court remarked on Thursday as it heard petitions challenging the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar and the alleged deletion of nearly 366,000 voters from final rolls.

- Utkarsh Anand

A bench of justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, while hearing the matter for the third time in as many weeks, expressed concern over absence of credible material before it to establish wrongful deletions, observing that mostallegations were yet to be tested through the statutory appeal mechanism available under the law.

“An appeal can just be made by saying that ‘My name has not been included and no order has been passed’. Where is even one such appeal? There seems to be too much of passion, little of reason. Let appeals be filed first,” the bench told advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for petitioner NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The courtstressed that anyone aggrieved by deletion from the electoral rolls must first exhaust the remedy of appeal before the designated authorities under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, adding that even those who have received cryptic or incorrect orders could still approach the appellate forum.

The remarks came after senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Election Commission of India (EC), pointed out discrepancies in an affidavit filed by ADR on behalf of a person who claimed his name had been wrongfully deleted. Dwivedi told the court that the individual was never on the draft rolls, had not submitted the voter enumeration form, and that the electoral details provided pertained to another person—a woman registered at a different polling booth.