Followed due process without prejudice: Govt tells Rajya Sabha on SIR exercise
The government told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls is being carried out without prejudice towards any
The government told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls is being carried out without prejudice towards any group or community and in line with due process of law. In a written reply, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal also said the Supreme Court has endorsed the Election Commission's powers under the Constitution to conduct the exercise to purify the voters' list. Read Full Story Meghwal said, "SIR is carried out by following the due process of law without prejudice to any group or community." He said the Election Commission has, from time to time, clarified that it carries out internal quality checks at every stage of the exercise.
According to the minister, these checks include cross-verification of booth level officer enumeration through supervisory officers, random sample audits of deleted entries, and public disclosure of draft and final rolls to allow scrutiny by political parties and electors. He said the combined voters' list of nine states and three Union Territories had been pruned by 10.2 per cent after the Special Intensive Revision carried out by the Election Commission, with more than 60 lakh dead voters removed.
Meghwal also acknowledged that the United Nations Special Rapporteur had highlighted the large-scale removal of names from electoral rolls through an SIR process, particularly in West Bengal. He said the Election Commission, under Article 324 of the Constitution, is responsible for the supervision, direction and control of the preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of elections for Parliament and state legislatures, and noted that the process of SIR has been carried out by the poll body in the past as well.
The government maintained that the ongoing revision of electoral rolls is being conducted under the Election Commission's constitutional powers, with checks at different stages and with no prejudice towards any group or community. Ends
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