English
English
English
Supreme Court plea seeks SIT probe into SIR decisions linked to CEC Gyanesh Kumar (Img: Dynamite News)
New Delhi: A fresh legal challenge has emerged over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls after a petition was filed in the Supreme Court seeking action against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar. The plea has also sought a Special Investigation Team (SIT) inquiry into the alleged deletion of around 13 crore voters from electoral rolls.
The petition alleges that certain decisions related to the Election Commission’s voter revision process were taken without the required concurrence of other Election Commissioners and has sought judicial scrutiny of those decisions.
The petition has sought a declaration that decisions, guidelines and software-related changes allegedly made without the approval of the full Election Commission should be declared invalid. It has also sought restoration of the original Form 6 used for voter registration.
The plea has named CEC Gyanesh Kumar, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg and ECI IT head Seema Khanna, seeking action over alleged violations of statutory duties under election laws.
The petition refers to reports claiming that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had raised objections on several occasions over decisions related to voter addition, deletion, restoration and changes in the registration process.
The Election Commission, however, has maintained that decisions related to the SIR process were taken with the approval of the Commission and were unanimous.
The petition comes amid wider debate over the electoral roll revision exercise. The Supreme Court has also recently examined concerns related to notices issued during the SIR process, including questions over the basis of certain classifications used by the Election Commission.
The latest plea has brought the SIR exercise into a new legal phase, with the Supreme Court expected to examine the issues raised in the petition.
