SC seeks ECI response on pleas against SIR in TN, WB, Kerala

The Supreme Court ‘on Wednesday emphasised that weeding out dead voters from electoral rolls is essential to deny any undue advantage to political parties even as the Election Commission of India accused political parties and leaders for creating a “scare” against the special intensive revision (SIR) carried out in multiple states for this purpose.

- Abraham Thomas

Hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the SIR conducted by ECI in Bihar and in states of Tamil ‘Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala where the process is underway, a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJ) Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi said that despite the allegation that crores of voters will be disenfranchised in Bihar, following the SIR exercise, about 366,000 voters who have not appealed against their deletion. “Political workers know very well who are the dead voters and those who are alive and have migrated,” the bench said, adding, “It all depends on the political gradient depending on your power. The party which is stronger gets all the votes of dead voters. That is why dead voters need to be weeded out.”

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal who appeared for some of the petitioners challenging the Blhar SIR process said it was undisputed that ECI has power to conduct SIR but he objected to the manner in which this exercise is being conducted. “Any exercise of revising electoral rolls post-Independence mustnot be exclusionary or else it will be unconstitutional.”