SIR issue goes at the very roots of democracy, remarks SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday orally observed that the clutch of petitions challenging the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) decision to revise electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar raises an issue which “goes at the very roots of democracy”, involving the right to vote.

After the petitioners’ side presented their oral submissions, a Bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi remarked, “There is no question that the issue raised goes at the very roots of democracy — the right to vote”.

“They (petitioners) are challenging not only the powers of the Election Commission of India to conduct Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise but the procedure and the timings as well,” it added.

During the hearing, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the poll body, urged the apex court not to interfere with the SIR exercise at this stage.

“Let the revision exercise be completed, and then your lordships may look at the entire picture,” submitted Dwivedi.

At this, the Justice Dhulia-led Bench said that once revised electoral rolls are out and the Assembly elections are notified, “no court will touch it”.

Several petitions have been filed before the top court claiming that if the June 26 order issued by the poll body directing SIR is not set aside, it can “arbitrarily” and “without due process” disenfranchise lakhs of voters from electing their representatives, and disrupt free and fair elections and democracy — a part of basic structure of the Constitution.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the petitioner side, contended that the ECI’s order directing “special” revision of electoral rolls in Bihar has no basis in law since the exercise fails to recognise Aadhaar Card and Voter ID Card for the purpose of verification.

On Monday, the Justice Dhulia-led Bench agreed to urgently list the matter after a battery of lawyers, including senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Gopal Sankaranarayanan and Shadan Farasat, mentioned it for urgent hearing.

In her petition, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra apprehended that such a second revision of the voters list could be replicated in West Bengal and demanded that the Supreme Court restrain the Election Commission from issuing similar orders for the SIR of electoral rolls in other states of the country.

Moitra, through her advocate Neha Rathi, contended that it is for the “very first time in the country” that such an exercise is being conducted by the poll body, where electors whose names are already there in electoral rolls and who have already voted multiple times in the past are being asked to prove their eligibility.

As per the plea, the SIR requirement asking voters to again prove their eligibility through a set of documents is “absurd”, since on the basis of their existing eligibility, most of them have already voted multiple times in the Assembly as well as general elections.

Amid the controversy, the ECI on Wednesday posted on X an excerpt from Article 326 of the Constitution of India, apparently to justify the ongoing SIR exercise in Bihar ahead of the ensuing Assembly elections.

“The elections to the House of the People and to the Legislative Assembly of every State shall be on the basis of adult suffrage; that is to say, every person who is a citizen of India and who is not less than twenty-one years of age on such date as may be fixed in that behalf by or under any law made by the appropriate Legislature and is not otherwise disqualified under this Constitution or any law made by the appropriate Legislature on the ground of non-residence, unsoundness of mind, crime or corrupt or illegal practice, shall be entitled to be registered as a voter at any such election,” quoted the poll body.

IANS