ADR misleading SC with false affidavits: Election Commission on SIR row

The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday accused the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) of filing false affidavits with regard to the special intensive revision (SIR) to mislead the Supreme Court.

On behalf of the EC, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi told a Bench led by Justice Surya Kant that the petitioner, ADR, had given fake details of a person, who claimed that his name had been excluded from the final list.

The name of the person referred to in the ADR's affidavit did not figure in the draft roll and that the details given were of some woman, Dwivedi told the Bench, which also included Justice Joymalya Bagchi.

Dwivedi said the ADR and activist Yogendra Yadav kept on filing their affidavits till late afternoon and the EC needed to file its responses.

ADR counsel Prashant Bhushan, however, insisted that the details had been given to him by a “very responsible person” and that the veracity of the details on the affidavit could be ascertained by the district legal service authority.

Disapproving of the ADR's conduct, the Bench expressed annoyance, saying this was not expected from the petitioner. "We wonder if such a person even exists,” it commented.

As Bhushan said there were affidavits of 20 other persons, Justice Bagchi said, "After our experience with this affidavit, we don't know how authentic the others will be…The petitioner ought to have verified if the person was there in the draft list, before handing over the affidavit to the court.”

Noting that there were discrepancies in the affidavits submitted by certain individuals who claimed to have been incorrectly excluded from the final electoral roll, the Bench declined to pass a blanket order on the issue.

The top court asked the affected individuals to file appeals to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Bihar.

It ordered the Bihar State Legal Service Authority (BSLSA) to issue directions to its district-level body for assisting voters excluded from the final electoral rolls in filing appeals with the EC.

It said the question of deciding the appeals by voters, excluded after the SIR exercise, within the stipulated time and with a reasoned order will be considered on October 16 — the next date of hearing on petitions challenging the SIR in Bihar.

"We want everyone to be given a fair chance to appeal and they should have detailed orders with them on why their names have been excluded. It should not be a one-line cryptic order," the Bench said.