EC has no mandate to hold pan-India SIR: Manish Tewari in LS

Initiating a two-day debate on electoral reforms in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Tewari made four more demands amendments to the 2023 law to expand the panel that selects the Chief Election Commissioner and the election commissioners (ECs); end to the practice of cash transfers at the cost of central and state exchequer and return to paper ballots in the wake of apprehensions around EVMs.

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Tewari quoted from the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act to argue that the SIR could be conducted only for a particular constituency after the EC "records reasons in writing". "The government should ask the EC for written reasons behind conducting the SIR in 12 states and UTs," Tewari said, challenging the legal and constitutional basis of the SIR and lamenting that the SIR debate had not even unfolde