Supreme Court Questions Apprehension Over Electoral Roll Revision in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal

New Delhi:

The Supreme Court expressed frustration today, questioning why critics are so "apprehensive" about the voter roll revision exercise. "You people are portraying like this is the first time in country that electoral rolls are being revised," remarked Justice Surya Kant, who is hearing multiple petitions against the procedure.

The bench was addressing a petition from West Bengal filed by Trinamool Congress MP Dola Sen. She is among numerous petitioners challenging the constitutional validity of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in election-bound West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

"Why are you all so apprehensive about SIR exercise? The ECI will provide answer to your queries," Justice Kant stated.

His observation came in response to arguments presented by Kapil Sibal, representing Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK, who claimed the SIR exercise was being conducted "in a tearing hurry, unlike before, when it used to take three years to revise electoral rolls".

"Lakhs of forms cannot be digitised before publication. This is ultimately going to be a farcical exercise," Sibal argued. "It cannot happen in one month. Bengal is much worse. There is no connectivity. There is no 5G no 4G... This is not an adversarial exercise. But what we see down the road - it is like that. We are giving suggestions," he elaborated.

"The situation in different states is different," Sibal explained to the court, detailing the states' concerns.

"This monsoon season in Tamil Nadu there would be a lot of rain, that might not be in other states. It's always heavy during November and December. It is not uniform across the country. The BLOs, etc., will have to manage flood relief as well. December and January are harvest season too in Tamil Nadu, and that time is not conducive. Christmas vacations will also be declared. There might be minimum participation in the enumeration process," Sibal noted, acknowledging that circumstances might vary in other states.

The court directed Tamil Nadu to file a counter-affidavit. "We are issuing notice. If we are satisfied, we will annul the exercise. We are issuing notice in all the writ petitions," the judges concluded.