On Monday, the final electoral roll in Meghalaya was published after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), with 2.18 million electors, a net increase of 14,720 from the August 5 draft roll. The two voters flagged at the draft stage as suspected foreign nationals were excluded from the final roll, and the matter was referred to the home department.
“Its inquiry is limited to the question of eligibility for inclusion in the electoral rolls, and any deletion on grounds of citizenship remains subject to the outcome of adjudication by the competent authority. He has accused the Opposition of protesting against the SIR to keep illegal immigrants on the rolls. Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge has accused the government of using the rhetoric on illegal immigration to divert attention from the alleged exclusion of millions of voters.
Swapnil Tripathi of the think tank Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy said the Election Commission of India (ECI) does not have a general power to identify suspected foreign nationals, but can make a limited inquiry into a person’s claim of citizenship while revising rolls, since only citizens can be registered as voters. In the Bihar SIR judgment, the Supreme Court in May said that if the ECI is unsatisfied about a person’s citizenship, it must refer the matter to the competent authority in the central government for inquiry. Tripathi said this does not confer a blanket power on the ECI to identify or declare individuals as foreign nationals. Union Home minister Amit Shah has repeatedly emphasised the policy to “detect, delete and deport” illegal immigrants, and that the SIR aims to cleanse electoral rolls of duplicate entries and undocumented immigrants. Congress Jairam Ramesh questioned how many “ghuspaithiye (infiltrators)” have been detected, deleted and deported following SIR.
