New Delhi: Supreme Court Wednesday upheld the power of the Election Commission to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, saying the exercise “advances the constitutional imperative of free and fair elections”.
“The process that may initially appear exclusionary can, through appropriate safeguards, be rendered constitutionally compliant. We are satisfied that impugned SIR exercise meets requirements of proportionality,” said a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant.
It can’t be said that the poll panel acted outside statutory powers by exercising SIR, added the bench, also including Justice Joymalya Bagchi.
“We are unable to conclude that the impugned exercise is a process resorted to solely for administrative convenience. On the contrary, we hold that the electoral SIR advances the constitutional imperative of free and fair elections,” the bench said.
The top court said the Election Commission has the power to conduct SIR of electoral rolls under constitutional schemes and the Representation of the People Act.
It said free and fair polls depend upon integrity, accuracy and credibility of electoral rolls. Free and fair elections do not rest merely upon the mechanics of polling, the court said.
The Supreme Court was delivering its judgement on a batch of petitions challenging SIR in Bihar. The pleas claimed that the Election Commission does not have powers under Article 326 of the Constitution, the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Rules made under it to carry out SIR in a larger form.
On January 29, the top court reserved its verdict on the pleas, including one filed by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
The SIR in Bihar was conducted in the first phase of the exercise.
The top court began final arguments in the matter on August 12 last year when it observed that inclusion or exclusion of names in the electoral rolls falls within the constitutional remit of the Election Commission.
The poll authority had come out with the names of 65 lakh people who were removed from the draft electoral rolls published as part of the SIR exercise.
According to the SIR notification, voters who were not present in the 2002 or 2003 rolls had to show ancestral linkage with someone present in the rolls then.
Defending the SIR exercise, the poll panel maintained that Aadhaar and voter identity cards cannot be treated as conclusive proof of citizenship.
The petitioners alleged that the electoral rolls revision was an “NRC-like process” where the poll body was verifying citizenship, a power which vests in the central government.