SIR carried out by ECI with due diligence and without prejudice to any community, says Union Minister

SIR carried out by ECI with due diligence and without prejudice to any community, notes Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal was responding to a question raised by Tamil Nadu MP Rajathi (Salma) in the Rajya Sabha.

What happened

In practice, the Union Minister of State for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal informed the Rajya Sabha lately that the Election Commission of India (ECI) under article 324 of the Constitution, is responsible for the supervision, direction, and control of the preparation of electoral rolls and the conduct of elections for Parliament and State Legislatures. Previously the process of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has been carried out by the ECI of which the Supreme Court of India has additionally upheld the ECI's power to conduct SIR.

Mr. Meghwal was responding to a question raised by Tamil Nadu MP Rajathi (Salma) in the Rajya Sabha regarding the United Nations Special Rapporteur expressing concern regarding the SIR process in the electoral rolls and the large-scale deletion of names from the electoral rolls citing the concern of sizeable scale elimination particularly in the state of West Bengal. He remarked over the years, rapid urbanisation, migration for education or employment, and other socio-economic changes have led to frequent shifting of residences. In this process plenty of electors register in the new constituency and their names continue to be on the old rolls additionally, resulting in duplication or incorrect entries.

So as to address these problems SIR is carried out by after the due process of law without prejudice to any group or community. He remarked the ECI has from time to time clarified that it carries out internal quality checks at each stage of SIR, including cross-verification of block level officer enumeration through supervisory officers, random sample audits of deleted entries, and public disclosure of draft and final rolls to enable scrutiny by the political parties and electors. Grievances received during the claims and objections period are examined and, wherever discovered valid, appropriate action has been taken before finalisation of the rolls. Even after the finalisation of the Electoral rolls, appeal can be preferred with the concerned District Magistrate and thereafter with the concerned Chief Electoral Officer in accordance with section 24 of the Representation of the Individuals Act, 1950.

The bottom line

For now, SIR carried out by ECI with due diligence and without prejudice to remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.