Responding to suggestions for directing SIRs at “regular intervals” across the country, the poll panel said such directions would impinge on its “exclusive jurisdiction.”
Election commission of India (Photo: IANS)
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday told the Supreme Court that only it has the authority to decide when and how to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and that no other authority can encroach upon this domain.
Responding to suggestions for directing SIRs at “regular intervals” across the country, the poll panel said such directions would impinge on its “exclusive jurisdiction.”
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The ECI submitted that the choice between a summary or intensive revision would depend on prevailing circumstances, but the discretion lay entirely with the Commission and was beyond judicial review.
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“The decision to conduct a summary or an intensive revision of the electoral roll is left to the discretion of the ECI. The ECI has complete discretion over the policy of revision to the exclusion of any other authority,” the Commission stated.
Citing provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, the Commission emphasised that these statutes vest in it complete discretion regarding the timing of a revisional exercise. “The obligation to conduct a revision of the electoral roll is not couched within a timeline,” the ECI said.
A Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi is hearing pleas concerning the ongoing SIR exercise in Bihar, where the apex court recently directed that Aadhaar be accepted as the 12th document for establishing identity in the process.
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