Over 2,000 citizens petition SC to halt SIR, seek probe into ECI
text_fields
New Delhi: More than 2,000 citizens have written to the Chief Justice of India and other Supreme Court judges, seeking urgent judicial intervention in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and asking the court to halt the exercise across all states and Union Territories pending an independent review.
The open letter, emailed to the Chief Justice’s office, raises concerns over decisions allegedly taken without the knowledge of two Election Commissioners, changes to voter registration forms and the role of the Election Commission’s centralised ECINet platform in adding and deleting voters. The signatories contend that these developments could affect the integrity of electoral rolls and result in eligible citizens being excluded from voting.
Citing a recent investigation by The Indian Express, the letter says Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi recorded objections at least 14 times over 10 months to decisions they said were taken without their knowledge or consent. It alleges that key directives and software changes were made under Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar despite their objections.
The petition also challenges a change to Form 6, which is used for new voter registration, requiring first-time voters to state whether their names or those of their parents appeared in earlier SIR electoral rolls. According to the letter, Sandhu described the addition as “unauthorised and illegal” and said it caused unnecessary harassment to young voters. The signatories said the change remained in use despite his objection. The Indian Express has separately reported that Sandhu and Joshi objected to the SIR-linked change to Form 6 and said statutory forms could not be altered without changes to the relevant rules.
On ECINet, the petition argues that Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) are the statutory authorities responsible for adding, changing or deleting names from electoral rolls, but that the centralised platform has overridden their decisions. It cites Goa, where it says EROs verified and cleared 97 voters but were unable to restore their names to the final rolls because of software locks. Concerns over the centralisation of electoral-roll management and restrictions on EROs’ statutory powers have also been raised internally within the Election Commission.
The letter further claims that more than 16 lakh appeals were filed in West Bengal seeking deletion of voters whom judicial officers had included on the rolls, without the knowledge or authorisation of the two Election Commissioners or the state’s Chief Electoral Officer. It also claims that more than 13 crore voters have been struck off during the SIR across 30 states and Union Territories. These figures and allegations are presented in the petition. The Indian Express has reported that more than 13 crore names were removed from draft electoral rolls across 30 states and Union Territories during the SIR.
The signatories have asked the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the Election Commission’s conduct, stay and rescind the SIR pending judicial review, and order an independent, court-monitored investigation into the alleged changes to forms and voter-registration software. They have also sought appropriate action against the Chief Election Commissioner and other officials whom they allege were responsible.
The petition additionally seeks an independent security and legal audit of ECINet, including an examination of who had access to the platform. It asks the court to restore the authority of local EROs and reinstate voters whose names were deleted because of technical glitches, software locks or unauthorised procedural changes.
The signatories include former public officials, academics, lawyers, journalists, artists and activists. Among those named are retired Madras High Court judge D Hariparanthaman, former Rajya Sabha MP Jawhar Sircar, economist Jayati Ghosh, lawyer Prashant Bhushan, actor Prakash Raj, activist Yogendra Yadav, former Lucknow University Vice Chancellor Rooprekha Verma, and academics Nivedita Menon and Zoya Hasan.
The letter has been signed on behalf of the citizens by professors Aditya Mukherjee, Mridula Mukherjee and Gauhar Raza, along with Anjali Bhardwaj, Amrita Johri and Shabnam Hashmi.
The petition comes amid continuing scrutiny of the SIR and the Election Commission’s internal processes. The Supreme Court had earlier held the SIR exercise under consideration legally tenable and said it pursued the legitimate objective of restoring the accuracy, completeness and integrity of electoral rolls.