In a fresh affidavit in the West Bengal SIR matter, the Election Commission has given the Supreme Court the break-up it had sought: of 38,31,429 appeals before the Appellate Tribunals, 22,21,118 were filed by voters whose names were deleted, and 16,10,311 challenge the inclusion of names. The Commission has proposed increasing the number of Tribunals to match the State’s parliamentary constituencies, and contested the claim that the appeals process altered any electoral outcome.
A Delhi sessions court has set aside, as a non-speaking order, a magistrate’s order that had refused to direct an FIR against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi over an allegation that her name was included in the 1980 electoral rolls before she acquired Indian citizenship in 1983. The court remanded the matter for a fresh, reasoned decision, while clarifying that a revisional court cannot itself order registration of an FIR. The allegations are untested.
The Election Commission has told the Supreme Court, in an affidavit filed in the West Bengal SIR matter, that of more than 38 lakh appeals filed before the Appellate Tribunals against the revised electoral rolls, only about 1.02 lakh, under 3%, have been disposed of, with over 37 lakh pending. The Commission has not given the break-up of appeals against exclusions versus inclusions that the Court had sought.
In an interim order, the Election Commission has recognised two rival groups within the All India Trinamool Congress, one led by Mamata Banerjee and the other by Arup Roy, and barred both from using the party name and the ‘Flowers and Grass’ symbol in the October 6 Nandigram and Rejinagar bypolls. The dispute over who is the real party will be decided under Paragraph 15 of the Symbols Order; both factions must pick fresh names and free symbols.
A writ petition before the Supreme Court seeks disclosure of the names of Delhi voters issued notices during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, and of the criteria behind the undefined ‘Logical Discrepancies’ category under which over 19 lakh voters were flagged. The petitioners say the notices give only generic grounds, preventing voters from defending their inclusion. The CJI has listed it for Tuesday with other SIR matters.
Former Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi has launched a sweeping critique of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, calling the large-scale deletion of voters “a scam,” questioning the legal basis of the exercise, and suggesting that officials who wrongly removed genuine voters could face criminal liability. The Election Commission maintains the revision is a […]
The Supreme Court issued notice on Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s plea for faster disposal of West Bengal SIR appeals and asked the ECI to place on record how many appeals the tribunals have decided. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice on a plea by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury seeking the faster disposal […]
The BJP criticised the INDIA alliance for writing to Chief Justice Surya Kant over the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi alleged the Opposition was spreading misinformation, creating fear about elections, and attempting to undermine democratic institutions.
