The Supreme Court will hear on October 28 an application challenging the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) decision to enrol deleted voters during Delhi’s special intensive revision (SIR) as new voters. The court on Wednesday said that it intends to pass orders in the matter since the last date for Delhi voters to file claims and objections expires on October 30.
Bhushan said that Bhardwaj and social activist Amrita Johri filed a petition on September 16, challenging the deletion of over 4.7 million voters in the Delhi’s draft electoral roll published pursuant to SIR. However, the petition was listed for October 30, by which time the matter will be infructuous. Bhardwaj’s application questioned an ECI modification to Form 6, which requires voters to provide legacy details linked to the 2002 rolls. Such a statement, she stressed, could lead to penal consequences under Section 31 of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950. During the enumeration phase of SIR in Delhi, 4,756,722 electors (32.78% of the voters who existed prior to start of SIR) were excluded from the Draft Electoral Roll under the category of ASDD (Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate or other categories). The process of receiving claims and objections is underway with the deadline of September 30 extended to October 30. To be sure, of the 9.7 million voters on the draft roll, 3.3 million were listed under logical discrepancies and unmapped. Bhardwaj’s plea also raised concerns over Form 7 applications (applications objecting to the inclusion of voters). It cited news reports to suggest that during the claims and objections phase, between August 31 and October 4, over 3,200 Form 7 applications were disposed of as against only 569 Form 6 applications.
Because it was introduced through an executive order, and not a statutory amendment, the plea states that this modification lacks statutory backing. The application, filed by RTI activist Anjali Bharadwaj, was mentioned by advocate Prashant Bhushan before Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant for an urgent hearing. Of these, two million have been verified.
In her plea, Bhardwaj also said a deleted voter should not be asked to apply as a new voter for re-inclusion, as it contradicts the declaration in Form 6, which requires every applicant to affirm that they are applying for inclusion in the electoral roll “for the first time”. She said this amounts to a “false declaration” since these voters were on the rolls and voted in past elections.
