The Congress leader's questions stem from the Home Minister’s consistent rhetoric during election campaigns, where he often emphasises the need to purge electoral rolls of non-citizens, or "infiltrators."
The upcoming crucial EC presser has triggered sharp political reactions across party lines in the aftermath of the highly controversial Bihar SIR.
A Bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked the BSLSA to instruct its district-level units to ensure that paralegal volunteers and legal aid counsel are available to provide free assistance to affected voters.
Appearing for the petitioner-organisation Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Advocate Prashant Bhushan urged the Court to direct the ECI to publish both the list of 3.66 lakh voters additionally deleted from the final rolls and the names of the 21 lakh persons newly included.
The Court sought to know whether the names added in the final list were of the new voters or of those who were previously deleted from the draft electoral roll the poll panel had released earlier.
He claimed that the process was marred by irregularities and aimed at providing political advantage to the ruling party.
Other documents like ration cards and driving license are also as susceptible to being forged as Aadhaar card and Aadhaar cannot be singled out and excluded on that ground.
Responding to suggestions for directing SIRs at “regular intervals” across the country, the poll panel said such directions would impinge on its “exclusive jurisdiction.”
The SC bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, however, also stated that Aadhaar will not be considered a proof of citizenship and the poll panel was at liberty to establish the genuineness of Aadhaar card number submitted by an elector.
The bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, taking this on record, directed the Bihar Legal Services Authority (BLSA) to instruct all district legal services authorities to depute or notify para-legal volunteers for assisting voters and political parties in online submission of claims, objections and corrections.
