New Delhi, Oct. 27 -- The Supreme Court said on Tuesday it would examine all aspects of the controversy surrounding the functioning of the Election Commission of India (ECI), including allegations that its decisions to conduct the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls were not unanimous.
"We know everything. We will examine," Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said while presiding over a three-judge bench hearing petitions challenging the EC's functioning.
The CJI fixed the matter for hearing on November 17 to enable the petitioners to file their counter to ECI's affidavit, which asserted that the decisions were "unanimous".
The CJI's remark came as senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and INDIA Bloc leaders, urged the bench, also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, to direct preservation of the file notings and ECI's internal communications, which he contended are crucial to decide if the decisions were taken unanimously.
The apex court granted 10 days to petitioners to file a reply to the EC's affidavit defending the SIR of electoral rolls, and asserting that the relevant orders were approved unanimously by all three members of the poll panel.
The top court bench, led by the CJI, also issued notices to the poll panel and others on a fresh plea filed by Rajya Sabha MP Dola Sen alleging that changes were made in Form 6 during Bihar SIR without the approval of the top court.
Senior advocate and MP Menaka Guruswamy, appearing for Sen, said the poll panel wrongly claimed that the changes in Form 6 were approved by the top court.
While issuing the notice, the CJI said that all the issues would be examined and asked senior advocate Vikas Singh, who represented the first petitioner, Rakesh Kumar Singh, to file a rejoinder in 10 days to the poll panel's reply affidavit.
The poll panel, in its 248-page response to the petition against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and the decisions taken by it, strongly defended the SIR.
Rejecting the allegations that Form 6 had been amended, the EC said that no changes were made to the statutory Form 6 used for voter registration.
"The attempt to make aspersions against the Election Commission is unfortunate," said the affidavit, filed by Deputy Election Commissioner Bhanu Prakash Yeturu on behalf of the EC.
The EC said the affidavit itself had been approved for filing by a unanimous decision of all three members of the poll panel.
The pleas were filed after The Indian Express reported last month that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objected on record at least 14 times over the last 10 months to decisions and orders on SIR of electoral rolls that they said were issued without their knowledge or recommendation.
In her petition, Sen, who is from the Mamata Banerjee faction, raised concerns over alleged changes to the online version of Form 6 and the Election Commission's subsequent press note suggesting that the Supreme Court had authorised or upheld the changes during the Bihar SIR proceedings. Guruswamy argued that the EC had gone beyond the directions issued by the Supreme Court in the Bihar SIR case.
The court had not authorised the alleged changes to Form 6, she said, adding that the issue warranted consideration alongside the other pending petitions concerning the challenge to the SIR process.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.