The Supreme Court on Monday said it was presuming that the Election Commission, being a constitutional authority, was following the law during the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar and warned that the entire exercise would be set aside in case any illegality is found at any stage.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, which fixed October 7 for hearing final arguments on the validity of Bihar SIR, refused to offer any "piecemeal opinion" on the exercise and said, "our judgment in Bihar SIR will be applicable for pan-India SIR".
The court clarified it can't stop the poll panel from conducting a similar exercise for the revision of electoral rolls across the country.
The bench, however, allowed petitioners against the Bihar SIR exercise to also argue on the pan-India SIR on October 7.
The top court also clarified that the publication of the final electoral roll on September 30 will not make any difference to the adjudication of the case.
"What difference will the final publication of the electoral roll make to us? If we are satisfied there is some illegality, we can set it aside," the bench told the petitioners who have challenged the SIR exercise.
The top court, in the meantime, issued notice on a plea seeking the recall of the September 8 top court order directing the poll panel to include the Aadhaar card as the 12th prescribed document in the Bihar SIR.
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