'Even today illegal foreign immigrants live in Assam and their names might be on the voters list. This we can get rid of only by doing SIR.'
Assam is the only state where the Election Commission of India has chosen to conduct a Special Revision (SR) of electoral rolls instead of a full Special Intensive Revision (SIR), even as SIR is being carried out in 13 other states and Union Territories.
The difference between the two is crucial: SR simply verifies whether an existing voter still lives at the same address, while SIR requires every voter to submit documents proving citizenship, residence and date of birth.
For a state like Assam -- long in the centre of debates over illegal immigration, National Register of Citizens exclusions, D-voter lists and ongoing questions of citizenship -- the choice of SR over SIR has become a matter of deep public concern.
Senior advocate Mrinal Kumar Choudhry has now approached the Supreme Court, arguing that without SIR, millions of potentially ineligible names may remain on the voters list.
In this interview with Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff, Choudhry explains why he believes Assam urgently needs SIR, why SR is insufficient, and what is at stake for the state's electoral integrity.
You have filed a petition before the Supreme Court challenging the Election Commission of India decision to carry out a Special Revision of electoral rolls in Assam instead of a Special Intensive Revision as was done in Bihar and 12 other states and Union territories. Why do you want SIR for Assam?
The most serious case of illegal foreigners staying in India is in Assam.
Before voting, the Election Commission takes out two processes. One is Special Revision of voters (SR) and the other is Special Intensive Revision of voters (SIR) which is being practised in other states. So, I fail to understand why SIR is not being done in Assam.
The problem of illegal foreign immigrants staying in Assam is very serious. The then governor of Assam, Lieutenant General S K Sinha, gave a report to the Government of India in 1997 where he stated that 40 lakh (4 million) illegal foreign immigrants stay in Assam. This was repeated by the then home minister Indrajit Gupta in Parliament (1997).
Even today illegal foreign immigrants live in Assam and their names might be on the voters list. This we can get rid of only by doing SIR.
What is the difference between the Special Revision process in Assam and Special Intensive Revision process conducted by the Election Commission in other states?
In SR the only thing the EC does is to verify the names of voters which already exist in their list. They just check whether the voter stays in the same place or not or whether a person staying in that place has expired or not.
On the contrary, in SIR, every voter has to fill two forms and produce documents to prove three things. 1. Citizenship 2. Place of residence and 3. Date of birth. This is the process through which illegal foreigners in India can be identified. And if they cannot prove, they will be out of the electoral rolls. This is being done in 13 states, so why not in Assam?
The National Register of Citizens was carried out in Assam in which citizenship verification was under legal scrutiny. Don't you think launching a full scale SIR now could interfere or conflict with that process?
National Register of Citizens was done under the direction of the honourable Supreme Court of India for which subsequently there was a revision and the matter has not been finally decided by the Supreme Court yet.
Now, if you want to do electoral revision at all, then it has to be SIR only because if NRC is taken into account, then SR too is not needed.
What about the NRC in Assam which had statistics of 19 lakh (1.9 million) illegal citizens? Are they eligible to vote since SIR is not being done in Assam?
That is why Assam needs the verification via SIR.
Do you mean that these 19 lakh illegal citizens will be able to vote in Assam?
Yes, unless there is SIR, how will you identify these 19 lakh illegal immigrants otherwise?
What about the 2.44 lakh (244,000) D voters or 'doubtful voters' who were discovered in the Foreign Tribunal of Assam earlier? Will they be able to vote?
These people went to court and the honourable Guwahati high court clearly stated that these 'D' voters will not have the right to vote.
The petitioners I think went to the Supreme Court of India too, but later withdrew their petition so the Guwahati high court judgment on 'D' voters stands.
As per special revision, house-to-house verification which started on November 22 will go on till December 20. The integrated draft electoral roll will be published on December 27 and the final roll on February 10 next year. Don't you feel in this scenario you approached the Supreme Court too late?
The notification came on November 19 and as far as the SIR in other states is concerned the ECI extended the time for a week. Here in Assam we have elections in the middle of May.
I approached the court in time and I came to know that the honourable Supreme Court of India is already hearing challenges on SIR implementation. There is also direction from the Supreme Court that no high court will directly entertain any petition regarding SIR. Therefore, I had to go to the Supreme Court of India.
Why do you think the Election Commission is not keen on having SIR in Assam? The EC says it does not want a duplication of NRC and SIR process.
This answer is not satisfactory at all. Special Revision is only an eyewash because according to the Constitution of India the Election Commission is bound to do SIR.
As I told you earlier, if SIR is not necessary as the EC says because you have NRC in Assam, then why you need SR too? This is contradictory.
People opposed to the BJP in Assam state that the party does not want SIR in Assam because out of the NRC's 19 lakh (1.9 million) illegal immigrants, 13 lakhs (1.3 million) are Hindu voters whom they believe are BJP voters.
I don't want to get into the religious aspect of this issue.
I am an independent person and do not belong to any political party or ideology.
It is only as a conscious citizen I am stating that if revision has to be done of electoral rolls in Assam, then it has to be through SIR.
This will debar foreign nationals from voting.