नवीनतम
SC begins hearing pleas against Bihar SIR
NEW DELHI [Maha Media]: The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard petitions challenging the Election Commission's decision to conduct special intensive revision (SIR) exercise in poll-bound Bihar and sought a list of people who are actually alive but have allegedly been shown dead and excluded from the draft roll.
Several petitioners, including RJD leader Manoj Jha, alleged that many people shown as dead in the draft roll are actually alive, raising concerns of wrongful exclusion. Stating that Bihar too is governed by the rule of law and that such allegations should not be dismissed lightly, the Apex Court asked the petitioners to submit a list of such persons and said any such error must be corrected.
As a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi began hearing a clutch of petitions against the poll body's decision to conduct SIR in Bihar, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Manoj Jha, argued that in one constituency the poll panel claimed 12 people were dead, but they were found alive, whereas in another instance, dead persons were declared alive.
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the Election Commission, said the exercise of such a nature was "bound to have some defects here and there". Dwivedi contended that to claim that dead persons were declared alive and alive as dead could always be corrected as it was only a draft roll.
When Sibal said authorities cannot ask for documents unless someone objects that a person is not a citizen, the SC bench pointed to a rule that elaborates on how objections to the electoral roll are handled. "Rule 10 is the rule for the preparation of the draft roll. Now, if there is an omission, the inclusion shall be through Form 6 application in view of Rule 13 sub-rule 1. That is where the 65 lakh excluded people are required to submit their application…," said Justice Bagchi.
Sibal said somebody has to object for a person's name to be deleted, and only then the name can be deleted from the draft roll.
Justice Bagchi asked Sibal to read Rule 10, which governs the preparation of draft roll, and added that if the draft roll does not include a voter's name, someone claiming to be citizen of India and entitled to vote, and if s/he submits an application using Form 6, and asks his/her name to be included in the electoral roll, "Then yes, you are right. It is authority's responsibility to show that the person is not an Indian citizen."
Sibal noted that the bench should look at the rule regarding the preparation of the draft roll. "The registration officer may, for the purpose of preparing the roll, not after the draft roll is prepared, send letters of request in Form 4 to the occupants..," argued Sibal.
The bench said all the rules preceding Rule 10 are preparatory steps for the draft roll. "Whether Election Commission has issued the requisite Form 4 through BLOs is something you are raising a flag about. This exercise was not undertaken; therefore, the preparation of the roll itself is not in consequence..," noted the bench.
Sibal replied, "Who is residing here, who has died, who is not residing here, and who has not died, they go to each household; they will give that information. Now what they have done is that without that, they have included dead persons and excluded several persons who are alive."
To this, Justice Kant said, "Who are the persons asking for this information? Where are those persons who are really aggrieved?" Sibal said, "They are here, and people who are shown to be dead are alive."
"If there are persons…give a list to us and give the list to them (Election Commission). We are going to take them to the task, if there is any person alive…," said Justice Kant.
Justice Kant said Bihar is also governed by the rule of law and "let us not discard a state like this". How did the BLO say they are dead when they are alive, and what exercise has he done, asked Sibal.
The bench said if there is an error then it has to be rectified. "How do we do that? This is not fair…," said Sibal.
The bench pointed out that the counsel is arguing on the procedural part. "They cannot do this in this manner. This is what I am saying…cannot do this exercise. You cannot ask for documents at the stage of preparation of the roll. What documents can you ask for?" said Sibal.
On July 29, terming the election commission a constitutional authority deemed to act in accordance with law, the top court had said it will step in immediately if there is "mass exclusion" in the SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar. The draft roll was published on August 1 while the final roll is scheduled to be published on September 30.
