New Delhi, the Supreme Court on Tuesday September 22 has issued notice to the Election Commission of India on a petition challenging the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Delhi, particularly the issuance of notices under logical discrepancy category. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana sought response of the poll panel within two weeks and asked it to indicate immediate steps taken, posting matter after two weeks. The petition filed by activists Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri and argued by senior advocate Prashant Bhushan contended that more than 47 lakh names were first deleted from Delhi’s draft roll published on August 31, majority categorised as shifted, and thereafter notices were issued to around 33 lakh voters out of remaining about 97 lakh voters citing so called logical discrepancies such as age gap less than 15 years with parents, less than 40 years with grandparents, five or more siblings, age difference less than nine months between siblings, misspelt surnames and families with more than six siblings, without telling voters what document to bring and what clarification to give. Bhushan told reporters that Election Commission first deleted more than 40 lakh voters and then issued notices to 37 lakh voters out of remaining 97 lakh voters on account of logical discrepancies asking them to appear to clarify positions but not telling them to come with what documents, and that labour class daily wagers and private job workers lose daily wages if they come repeatedly making survival difficult, while majority of Delhi voters have only Aadhaar and are being harassed unnecessarily for different proofs. Justice Bagchi observed that notices appeared to have been issued almost mechanically and are in all probability machine generated and asked EC to examine whether additional filters and safeguards are necessary, while CJI asked EC to clarify little what is logical discrepancy and suggested that Booth Level Officers should assist voters, field personnel be sensitised and EC prepare FAQs and allow submission of documents via WhatsApp or email instead of compelling in person appearance, and sought details of manpower deployed. EC counsel Dama Seshadri Naidu said representation was given a week ago and they had not received petition copy.
The Delhi case is part of a nationwide SIR exercise which has led to nearly six crore deletions. As per Election Commission draft and final data, Bihar pilot saw about 65 to 68.66 lakh deletions from 7.89 crore electors reducing to 7.42 crore at 8.7 percent, Uttar Pradesh the largest exercise saw 2.89 crore names deleted from 15.44 crore to 12.55 crore draft at 18.7 percent with 46.23 lakh deceased, 25.47 lakh duplicate and 2.17 crore shifted, Tamil Nadu saw 97 lakh deletions from 6.41 crore at 11.5 percent, Gujarat 73.73 lakh from 5.08 crore to 4.34 crore at 14.52 percent, West Bengal draft showed 58.20 lakh deletions from 7.66 crore to 7.08 crore at 7.6 percent comprising 24.16 lakh deceased, 32.65 lakh shifted and 1.38 lakh multiple entries but final tally after logical discrepancy adjudication ballooned to 90.8 lakh deletions at nearly 12 percent bringing final roll to 6.44 crore including 27 lakh removed during second phase, Madhya Pradesh 42.74 lakh from 5.74 crore at 7.44 percent, Rajasthan 41.85 lakh from 5.48 crore at 7.6 percent, Chhattisgarh 27.34 lakh from 2.12 crore, Kerala 24.08 lakh from 2.78 crore at 3.22 to 8.6 percent, Goa 1 lakh from 11.85 lakh at 8.44 percent, Puducherry over 1 lakh from 10.21 lakh at over 10 percent, Andaman and Nicobar 64,000 from 3.10 lakh and Lakshadweep 1,429 from 57,813 at 2.47 percent, taking combined deletions in second phase covering over 50.99 crore electors across 12 states and UTs to more than 5.18 crore including 66.88 lakh deceased and 63.16 lakh removed after objections, while third phase covering 36.73 crore voters in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Chandigarh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu is underway.
