Nothing arbitrary in conduct of SIR: EC tells Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Thursday asserted before the Supreme Court that there was nothing manifestly arbitrary in its conduct of the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in several states and no individual affected by it has approached the court.

“There may be errors here and there, but the exercise is bonafide,” senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi submitted before a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.

He said after the previous SIR in 2003, but with the amendment, the person had to prove that both of the parents are born in India, because cross boarder migration had increased.

"The Amendment Act of 2003 was passed when Atal Bihari Bajpayee was the PM, there was complete support on both sides, no opposition, it shows, this amendment was desirable," he said.

The EC's counsel claimed that no individuals, directly affected by the SIR exercise, has approached the court.

“You see who are the petitioners? Persons who come to court are leaders of political parties, private individuals and NGOs. The petitioners are only raising a hue and cry, saying they represent unnamed individuals,” Dwivedi said.

With regard to questions whether the due process was followed in the SIR exercise or not, he asked, "Now even President (of the USA) Donald Trump can go and suddenly lift the President of Venezuela and now wants Greenland, where is due process in that?"

"Now the USA is also not applying due process," he said.

The bench pointed out, this expression "due process" has been used sometimes by the courts without realising that it is borrowing from the USA courts

Dwivedi submitted, this court has repeatedly stated that the courts cannot sit on wisdom of the policy makers.

The court also said, the writ petitions were filed six days after the SIR order.

“Articles were published in the newspapers, and then writ petitions followed. It has become a fashion to attack the EC,” he said, claiming that statistics could be tweaked to fit narratives.

The court is seized of a batch of pleas challenging the EC's decision to conduct the huge exercise of SIR of electoral rolls in several states, including Bihar.