The Supreme Court on Tuesday commenced hearing a batch of pleas challenging the Election Commission's decision to conduct special intensive revision (SIR) exercise in poll-bound Bihar.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi began hearing senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for RJD leader Manoj Jha, arguing while in one constituency the poll panel claimed 12 people were dead, they were found alive whereas in another instance alive persons were declared dead. Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the poll panel, said the exercise of such a nature was "bound to have some defects here and there" and to claim that dead persons were declared alive and alive as dead could always be corrected as it was only a draft roll.
The bench told the poll panel to "be ready" with facts and figures for it would be question over the number of voters before the exercise commenced; number of dead before and now aside from other relevant details.
On July 29, terming the election commission a constitutional authority deemed to act in accordance with law, the top court said it will step in immediately if there is "mass exclusion" in the SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar.
