Supreme Court Asks Election Commission To Respond To Pleas Challenging SIR In Tamil Nadu And West Bengal

A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the poll panel to respond to the fresh petitions in two weeks.

The Apex Court asked the Madras and Calcutta high courts to keep in abeyance any proceedings on petitions challenging the SIR exercise in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

It also allowed the listing of an intervention application filed by the AIADMK in support of the SIR in Tamil Nadu.

During a brief hearing, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing in the court for the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu, said the exercise is being done hurriedly, without following the due process, and different sets of documents are being sought from voters.

He said the northeast monsoon in Tamil Nadu is always heavy during November-December, and the coastal districts experience heavy to very heavy rains during this season.

"According to the meteorological department, this year, heavier rain than usual is predicted. Because of this, the common people will be preparing for the same and the revenue officials who are enlisted as BLOs, EROs, AEROs will have to manage the flood relief as well. Hence, practically, this is not a conducive time for conducting the above exercises," Sibal said.

Justice Kant said in a country as big as India, some states will always face natural calamities.

Sibal said there is very poor connectivity in certain areas of the southern state and there will be difficulties in uploading documents.

"Similarly, in West Bengal also, rural connectivity is very poor and much bad with regard to Tamil Nadu," he said.

The bench said, "It appears that the case being projected before us is that for the first time, electoral rolls are being prepared. We also know the ground realities. There is a constitutional authority which is doing the exercise and it is mandated to do it. Earlier also, it has been done."

Justice Kant said the problem is that everybody wants "status quo".

Sibal said the petitioners want the EC to do its work but not in this fashion and hurriedly.

The bench said political parties should not be apprehensive of the exercise and the EC will give all details related to it.

"If we are satisfied that there is something wrong, we will annul the entire exercise," the court said.

On the argument that different modalities are being adopted in Tamil Nadu, compared to what was followed in Bihar during the SIR exercise, the bench said it means that the EC has rectified its mistakes.

Sibal said the Bihar SIR has nothing to do with the exercise in Tamil Nadu and the situation and conditions are different in the two states.

Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing in the court for the EC, sought to file replies to the fresh petitions.

Senior Advocate Kalyan Banerjee, appearing for Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Dola Sen, said they too have filed the petition challenging the SIR in West Bengal.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing in the matter for NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, questioned various "procedural irregularities" on the EC's part like issuing a machine-readable voter list in Bihar.

The bench said notices are being issued to the EC on all the fresh petitions and the court will look into the pleas after the poll panel's response.

It told the EC, "You should adopt the best practice and experience of the Bihar SIR in exercises which are to be conducted in other states. However, you should always keep in mind the local conditions."

The court listed the matter for further hearing on November 26 and 27, and said it will hear the arguments on the interim relief sought by different political leaders, such as a stay on the SIR.

Besides Sen, West Bengal Congress leader Shubhankar Sarkar, DMK's R S Bharathi, CPI-M's P Shanmugam and other leaders have filed separate petitions challenging the SIR in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry.

In his plea filed through advocate Vivek Singh, Bharathi has claimed that the exercise is violative of Articles 14, 19 and 21 (rights to equality, freedom of speech and life) and other provisions of the Constitution, the Representation of the People Act and the Registration of Electors Rules of 1960.

The CPI(M) has challenged the constitutional validity of the EC's directive to conduct the SIR in Tamil Nadu, terming the process "arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional".

Meanwhile, the AIADMK has supported the poll panel's decision to conduct the SIR in the southern state, calling it a "legitimate and necessary" exercise to uphold the sanctity of elections and prevent voter fraud.

On October 27, the EC announced the conduct of the second phase of the SIR in 12 states and Union territories between November and February next year.

These states and Union territories are -- the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal are scheduled to go to polls in 2026.

The EC has said for Assam, where polls are also due in 2026, the revision of the electoral rolls will be announced separately.

The second phase of the SIR exercise began on November 4 and will continue till December 4. The EC will release the draft electoral rolls on December 9 and the final electoral rolls on February 7.

With PTI Inputs