SC upholds EC's power to conduct SIR, says exercise important for free and fair elections

Supreme Court of India upheld EC`s power to conduct SIR. File pic

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the power of the Election Commission of India to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise of electoral rolls, saying that it "advances the constitutional imperative of free and fair elections".

It can't be said that the poll panel acted outside statutory powers by exercising SIR, observed a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant.

"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 pleas challenging SIR 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 commenced 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 EC 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

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