The Bombay High Court’s Kolhapur Bench declined to grant urgent hearing to a petition challenging 14 Election Commission actions attributed to CEC Gyanesh Kumar. The plea remains pending and has not been dismissed on merits.
The Election Commission of India has told the Supreme Court that it is wrong to claim that deletions made during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls cost the Trinamool Congress 31 West Bengal Assembly seats, arguing that the figures relied upon improperly club adjudicated deletions with removals of absentee, shifted, dead and duplicate voters. […]
A writ petition before the Bombay High Court seeks to quash 14 actions of the Election Commission of India and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, allegedly taken over the past ten months despite recorded objections by the two other Election Commissioners, raising questions about the collective functioning of the poll body. Mumbai: A writ petition […]
Hearing a plea over the Special Intensive Revision of Delhi’s electoral rolls, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Election Commission and suggested practical safeguards, an FAQ-style guide for voters, Booth Level Officer assistance, and orientation for BLOs, on ‘logical discrepancy’ notices said to be issued to lakhs of voters. The petitioner alleged the notices were vague and burdensome and that shifted voters were being made to file the wrong form; the Commission maintained every notice states its reason and that no voter will be deleted without a hearing. Nothing was decided.
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.
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.
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.
