Democracy survived ECI's brutal assault: Congress hails SC directive on SIR

The grand old party said that the apex court has laid down guardrails to make the revision more inclusive by including political parties in the process.

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court order allowing excluded voters to submit claims along with any one of the 11 documents acceptable in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), saying that democracy has survived a "brutal assault" from the Election Commission.

General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh said that the SC has laid down guardrails to make the revision more inclusive by including political parties in the process. 

The Congress welcomes the order of the Supreme Court on the Bihar SIR issue, he said, adding, "democracy has survived a brutal assault from the Election Commission of India (ECI)."

On August 14, he said the Supreme Court had intervened to set aside the EC's decision to withhold the list of deleted voters. 

"The Supreme Court had directed that the list of deleted voters must be published along with the reasons for such deletions. On August 14, the Supreme Court had also directed the EC to accept Aadhar cards as proof of identity for those deleted. Today it reaffirmed Aadhar as a valid ID that the ECI must accept," he said.

"Today, the Supreme Court has laid down guardrails to make the revision more inclusive by including political parties in the process. So far the EC's approach has been obstructionist and contrary to the interests of the voters. We welcome this judgment especially because it gives us an enforceable right which the ECI cannot ignore. Today, the ECI stands totally exposed and discredited. Its G2 puppeteers stand decisively defeated," he said.