Supreme Court notice to ECI on plea against Maharashtra SIR deletions

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Election Commission of India and the Maharashtra government to respond to a petition challenging the deletion of voters in the state’s special intensive revision (SIR) and seeking an interim direction to pause the exercise.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant posted the matter for hearing on November 5, a day before the poll panel is to publish the final state electoral roll after receiving claims and objections.

Senior advocate Arvind Datar, who appeared for the petitioner, Arun Anandagiri, a chartered accountant and journalist, told the bench that the problem faced in Maharashtra was unique.

“There are 3,500 redevelopment projects in Mumbai and 1,500 projects in Pune. These persons are to be allotted fresh flats and have been provided alternative accommodations elsewhere. During SIR, they were shown as “not found” at their previous addresses, which has led to their deletion from the rolls. About 3 crore persons have been knocked off the rolls in this manner,” the senior lawyer said, urging the bench to hold the exercise in abeyance so people who had to shift didn’t lose out.

The bench, also comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, told him, “Don’t worry. You are a whistleblower. You are before us. We will see if any order is to be passed if the need arises. We will issue orders after hearing the other side.”

The petition said the situation was so serious that the SIR process removed over 40% of voters in Mumbai (around 3.6 million), followed by Pune (2.86 million), Thane (2.85 million) and Nagpur (1.4 million).

The petition was first listed for an urgent hearing before the Supreme Court on October 15, with the request that it be taken up with the SIR petition in Delhi. CJI Surya Kant, however, decided to hear the plea separately on October 26, saying the issue needed to be dealt with state-wise.

The Supreme Court is already hearing a broader batch of petitions challenging the SIR framework nationwide, including pleas filed by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and other Opposition leaders. On October 28, the top court will resume hearing an application challenging ECI decision to enrol deleted voters during Delhi’s SIR as new voters.

The latest SIR, an electoral roll cleansing drive, started with Bihar in June last year, to remove bogus, duplicate, and ineligible voters, including deceased individuals and “illegal immigrants”. The SIR sparked criticism from the Opposition, which alleged that the exercise is a strategic voter roll clean-up drive by the poll body to benefit the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The SIR in West Bengal was one of the most contentious in recent years, with the deletion of nearly nine million from the electoral roll. The difference in absolute votes the BJP and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) polled was similar to the total SIR deletions. The TMC has maintained that the deletions helped the BJP win West Bengal elections. The BJP, which swept to power in the state for the first time, winning 207 of 294 seats, has rejected this link.