On Wednesday, the Supreme Court asked election commission of India (ECI) to give its replies by December 1 to a set of writ petitions challenging the lawfulness and propriety of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. These petitions cite abnormalities, excessive force on authorities and threats to the purity of the voter-list revision process.
Throughout the hearing, the ECI strongly justified the current revision exercise. The poll body senior advocate, Rakesh Dwivedi maintained that the situation on the ground was much more stable than that the petitioners had described. In his opinion, political leaders were needlessly raising alarm when most of the work was almost being completed. He told the bench that 99 percent of the enumeration forms were given out in Kerala and that the exercise was going on efficiently.
Dwivedi also added that the ECI has been in a close liaison with the Kerala State Election Commission (KSEC) which has guaranteed that the enumeration exercise would be over by December 4. His reaction is vital to such proceedings, he said, since KSEC had made it clear that the local body elections had not been an obstacle to enumeration efforts.
But the petitioners painted a very dark picture. They argued that the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) that participated in the SIR exercise were under significant pressure and overwork thus experiencing severe distress. They reported to the court that several BLOs had died by suicide and others were hospitalised, an indication that in their view that is a very faulty and cumbersome exercise.
It was reported by a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that it would also seek official response of the KSEC to authenticate the claims.
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