SIR 2.0 | Supreme Court seeks EC's reply on pleas of DMK, TMC challenging exercise in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi asked the poll panel to respond to the fresh petitions in two weeks. The bench, however, asked the petitioners why they were so apprehensive about the exercise.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to Election Commission on a batch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi sought a detailed response from the poll panel and posted the matter for further hearing to November 26.

The court also ordered that the High Courts would keep in abeyance the petitions filed before them in relation to the SIR in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

The petitions were filed by leaders of TMC and West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, and Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).

Upon hearing the counsel, the bench said that since this court was seized of the Constitutional validity in connection with the issue of legality of SIR of electoral rolls in various states including Bihar, WB, TN, Pondicherry, etc., thereby it requested the jurisdictional High Courts to keep in abeyance or defer the writ proceedings if any filed in these state High Courts with respect to the validity of the exercise.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for DMK, contended that the SIR exercise was being undertaken in tearing hurry unlike before when it used to take three years to revise the electoral rolls.

He also submitted that there is no 5G networks in many areas and it would be difficult to upload the forms.

Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi for the EC submitted surprisingly, states were competing with each other to show how backward they are instead of showing that they are developing.

The bench, however, asked the petitioners why they were so apprehensive about the exercise.

Sibal, for his part, submitted that the situation in different states were different. In this monsoon season in Tamil Nadu in November and December, there would be a lot of rain, that might not be in other states, he said.

"It is not uniform across the country. The BLOs etc will have to manage the flood relief as well. December and January is harvest season too in Tamil Nadu and that time is not conducive," he submitted.

The bench, however, said, "You people are acting as if the electoral roll revision is happening for the first time. We are also aware of the ground realities."

Advocate Balaji Srinivasan, appearing for AIADMK, also expressed surprise over the DMK citing poor connectivity in rural areas.

The court is already seized of a batch of pleas filed by NGO- ADR, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Yogendra Yadav, Lok Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) from Trinamool Congress Party, Mahua Moitra, Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha, Congress Party leader K C Venugopal and Mujahid Alam, who challenged the SIR in Bihar.

The revision of electoral rolls started before the ongoing Bihar Assembly elections on June 24, was expanded, to cover 51 crore voters in 12 States and Union Territories, including Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala and Puducherry.