Supreme Court agrees to hear plea against Delhi SIR on priority after deletion of 47 lakh voters
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Supreme Court agrees to hear plea against Delhi SIR on priority after deletion of 47 lakh voters")
The bench agreed to take up the petition on Monday, when several matters about Special Intensive Revision are listed. Photograph: (ANI)
The Election Commission has said the deletions followed the identification of 43.32 lakh people who had either shifted from their addresses or were absent during revision exercise. It said another 2.82 lakh voters were deceased and 1.41 lakh were registered at more than one place.
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to give “precedence” to the hearing of a writ petition raising discrepancies in the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Delhi, including the removal of lakhs of over 47 lakh voters from the draft electoral roll, on Monday, September 21.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant listed the petition filed by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Neha Rathi, flagging that apart from the 47-plus lakh people removed in the draft roll, the Election Commission is preparing notices to 33 lakh people.
The deletions came to light after the Election Commission published the draft roll on August 31.
The bench agreed to take up the petition on Monday, when several other matters concerning Special Intensive Revision exercises are also listed.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who appeared for the petitioner, told the court that the Election Commission had issued notices to 33 lakh people whose names were deleted. Bhushan questioned why the poll panel had not made public the names of people who were issued notices or the reasons cited for their exclusion from the roll.
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“What they have done is that they have not disclosed the names of people who have been issued notices or on what grounds they have been deleted,” Bhushan submitted.
He also questioned the basis for identifying “logical discrepancies” and “unmapped” voters.
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The Election Commission has said the deletions followed the identification of 43.32 lakh people who had either shifted from their recorded addresses or were absent during the revision exercise. It said another 2.82 lakh voters were found to be deceased and 1.41 lakh were registered at more than one place.
Logical discrepancies refer to inconsistencies in voters’ personal details. These can include unusual age differences between family members, changes in parents’ names and entries supported only by Aadhaar, he said.
Mapping involves checking voters’ details against older electoral records or voting records of family members from previous generations.
Bhushan, while describing the SIR process as “totally opaque”, urged the court to hear the matter at an early stage.
“We will list it on Monday (September 21). Such matters will have precedence,” CJI Kant said.
