New Delhi : The Supreme Court opened final arguments on Wednesday in a batch of petitions contesting the Election Commission’s push for a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across several states, and made it clear that Aadhaar cannot be treated as unquestionable proof of citizenship.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi also underlined that the poll panel retains “inherent power to determine the correctness of entries in Form 6,” the application used to register as a voter.
The judges reiterated that Aadhaar’s purpose is limited. “Aadhaar is a creation of statute for availing benefits. Just because a person was granted Aadhaar for ration, should he be made a voter also? Suppose someone belongs to a neighbouring country and works as a labourer, shall he be allowed to vote?” the CJI asked.
The Supreme Court rejected the suggestion that the poll body must function like a “post office” and automatically accept every Form 6 submission.
“You are saying the Election Commission is a post office that must accept the Form 6 submitted and include your name,” the bench asked.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing some petitioners, argued that the SIR process imposes an unconstitutional burden on ordinary voters, many of whom may struggle with paperwork and face the risk of deletion.
He stressed that the exercise “affects democracy” at its core.
The bench, however, observed that the claim that such a revision has never been conducted before cannot be used to undermine the EC’s authority to run the exercise. It said any deletion from the voter list must be preceded by proper notice.
The court also set timelines for separate challenges to the SIR in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal.
The EC must respond to the Tamil Nadu petitions by December 1, followed by rejoinders within two days, ahead of a December 4 hearing. Pleas from Kerala will be heard on December 2, with the poll panel’s reply due on December 1.
Cases involving West Bengal — where a few booth-level officers have allegedly died by suicide — will come up on December 9. The election body is expected to file its response over the weekend, while the state government and the State Election Commission may submit theirs by December 1.
