Political parties creating ‘scare’ about SIR, poll panel tells SC

“These political parties are creating a scare,” senior counsel Rakesh Dwivedi told a Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi during a hearing on petitions challenging the SIR exercise in 12 states and UTs, besides Bihar.

The Bench said it could extend the deadline for the publication of the draft electoral rolls in these states/UTs, if found necessary.

Regarding the SIR in Kerala, Dwivedi said the EC and the State Election Commission (SEC) were coordinating and 99 per cent of the voters had received forms. The SEC had said they were not facing any issues, he added.

The Bench asked the EC and the SEC to respond to the Kerala Government’s petition seeking to defer the SIR exercise in the state in view of the ongoing local body elections and listed the matter for hearing on December 2. It said the petitions challenging the SIR in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal would be heard on December 4 and 9, respectively.

The Bench had chosen not to stay the SIR in Bihar, which has since been completed and the Assembly elections were held in the state earlier this month. However, the constitutional challenge to the SIR exercise in Bihar is yet to be decided.

Terming it “erroneous and unconstitutional”, senior counsel Kapil Sibal, representing West Bengal, said such an SIR had never been done in the country.

The CJI, however, said “never been done in this country” couldn’t be a parameter to adjudicate constitutional validity of an exercise.

The Bench rejected Sibal’s suggestion that Aadhaar should be accepted as the final proof of citizenship.

“Aadhaar isn’t absolute proof of citizenship…. That is why we said it will be one of the documents in the list... If anyone’s name is deleted (from electoral roll), they will have to be given a notice of deletion,” the Bench said.

“Aadhaar is a creation of a statute which governs distribution of benefits etc. but just because a person has Aadhaar for availing of some social welfare benefits.... Suppose someone belongs to a neighbouring country. Someone working as a labourer at a construction site etc and you give Aadhaar for availing ration etc. It’s a part of our constitutional ethos. But just because he was given that (Aadhaar), should he be made a voter also?” it wondered.