NEW DELHI:
Supreme Court on Thursday said SIR of electoral rolls, being carried out after more than two decades, cannot be a copy-paste of earlier voter lists and, logically, the voter enumeration by the Election Commission would include an inquisitorial process to ascertain, not determine, citizenship.
Senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, appearing for a petitioner challenging the validity of SIR process, said voter enumeration exercise cannot begin with distrust on part of EC to test citizenship of every voter, especially when the statutory task to determine citizenship, upon receipt of a complaint about a foreigner, is vested with other authorities.
A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said, "EC is constitutionally vested with the power of superintendence of elections, which would include ensuring that only Indian citizens are registered as voters. Would it mean that EC must await a complaint, or undertake an inquisitorial exercise to determine who are doubtful voters? It is better to conduct a summary inquiry rather than await a complaint."
Ramachandran said the SIR for Bihar, according to EC, was necessitated for two reasons - mass migration and rapid urbanisation. "Reason for Bihar SIR cannot be reason for conducting pan-India SIR as different states have different demography and ground situation relating to electoral rolls," he said, adding EC failed to provide detailed reasons for conducting such an exercise.
This was the second time when SC had justified updation of poll rolls through SIR. The bench said in the June 24 notification, giving the two reasons for conducting SIR, gives out an intention to carry out pan-India SIR with Bihar as the starting point. "Migration encompasses both inter-state and cross-border movement of population mainly for economic reasons. For some people across the border, Indian cities are economically more viable. While from India, talented people are migrating to other countries. For citing migration as a reason for SIR, no statistics or research is required," it said.
Ramachandran said that states like Chhattisgarh and MP, which are going to polls in 2028, are included in SIR exercise, while other states where elections are due in future have been excluded. "Whole process is arbitrary," he added. The arguments would continue on Tuesday.
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