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.
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. Point (iii) of the declaration specifically requires the applicant to affirm that they are applying for inclusion in the electoral roll for the first time. Because it was introduced through an executive order, and not a statutory amendment, the plea states that this modification lacks statutory backing. As a result, Bhardwaj said, an existing elector whose name already existed in the roll is subjected to conditions that do not correspond with their correct status as an elector, and exposes them to penal consequences.
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. Form 6 requires an applicant to fill in their personal particulars including name, gender, date of birth, details of present ordinary residence, name of any relative (Father/ Mother/ Husband/ Wife/ Legal Guardian) and Aadhaar number along with a declaration. Point (v) of the declaration states that the applicant is aware that giving a false declaration can attract penal consequences under Section 31 of the RP Act, 1950. On Monday, the Supreme Court clarified that it had never adjudicated the validity of the ECI’s new Form 6, underlining that the modified version was not in existence when the court examined the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar earlier this year. The clarification assumes significance amid a dispute over the poll body’s claim that the Supreme Court upheld a declaration appended to Form 6 for the SIR exercise. Delhi received 2,20,645 Form-6 applications for inclusion in electoral rolls and 83,004 Form-8 applications for updating addresses or corrections between August 31 and October 12, according to the Chief Electoral Officer’s bulletin on Tuesday. During the same period, 9,243 Form-7 applications seeking deletion of names and 393 Form-6A applications were received.
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. The court said its earlier observations could not be construed as a judicial endorsement or rejection of any modified form and agreed to examine the issue after it was brought to its notice.
