The Supreme Court commences hearing on pleas challenging the Election Commission's decision to undertake special intensive revision of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
The timing of Election Commission's 'special intensive revision' of the electoral rolls in Bihar - months before a crucial Assembly election - was questioned by the Supreme Court.
"Your exercise is not the problem... it is the timing," Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia said, noting individuals who might be dropped from the list would have no time to appeal the exclusion.
"There is nothing wrong in the exercise... except that a person will be disenfranchised ahead of the election and s/he won't have the time to defend the exclusion before voting," Justice Dhulia continued, "Courts will not touch the electoral roll once they are finalised... which means a disenfranchised person will lack the option to challenge it (the revised list) before the election."
"Why are you connecting SIR in Bihar to assembly elections in November? Why can't it be irrespective of elections?" SC asks ECI.
No one will be excluded from voter list without an opportunity to be heard, ECI assures SC.
"This is a very important issue and goes to the very root of democracy... they (the petitioners) are not only challenging the powers of the EC but also the procedure..." the court said as it sought a reply from the poll panel on questions raised by the clutch of petitioners.
The EC tells the SC it has some preliminary objections to the pleas. "What EC is doing is mandated under Constitution and last such exercise was undertaken in 2003," the court says.
SC questions EC over exclusion of Aadhaar card from list of documents in special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar. "Why are you getting into citizenship issue in special revision of electoral rolls in Bihar? It is domain of MHA," the apex court said.
EC tells SC that citizenship is required to be checked for being voter in India under Article 326 of Constitution.
"If EC does not have power to revise electoral roll then who will do it?" asks EC's counsel Rakesh Dwivedi.
"SIR exercise important issue, goes to root of democracy, power to vote," the SC tells the EC.
The Supreme Court is hearing a batch of pleas challenging the Election Commission's decision to undertake a special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the poll-bound Bihar.
A partial working day (PWD) bench comprising Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi was told by senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the poll panel, that he has preliminary objections to the petitions.
Over 10 petitions have been filed in the SC, including one by NGO 'Association for Democratic Reforms', the lead petitioner. RJD MP Manoj Jha and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress' K C Venugopal, NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule, CPI leader D Raja, Samajwadi Party's Harinder Singh Malik, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Arvind Sawant, JMM's Sarfraz Ahmed and Dipankar Bhattacharya of CPI (ML) have also moved the top court, seeking direction for quashing the EC order.
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