New Delhi, Sept. 17 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear on September 21 a plea against deletion of names from the electoral rolls under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Delhi.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said it will hear the matter on
Monday as other matters related to the SIR are also listed next week.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing in the court for petitioners Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri, submitted that the Election Commission (EC) has issued notices to 33 lakh of the 47 lakh people whose names have been deleted from the electoral rolls during the SIR exercise in the national capital.
The petitioners have also sought a disclosure of the criteria, definitions, algorithmic parameters and operational guidelines governing the classification of voters under the "Logical Discrepancies" category.
"What they have done is that they have not disclosed the names of the people who have been issued notices or on what grounds they have been deleted. They have not disclosed which people the notices have been issued to, what are the logical discrepancies and how are they unmapped," Bhushan submitted.
The plea filed under Article 32 of the Constitution has alleged violations of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 19 and 21, besides the constitutional rights under Articles 325 and 326.
The petitioners have sought directions for the publication of a consolidated, searchable list of all the voters against whom notices have been issued during the SIR process in Delhi, along with their addresses and the specific reasons or categories for each notice.
The plea further seeks directions requiring authorities to specify the precise discrepancy and material facts forming the basis of each notice, so that the voters can effectively participate in the hearing process.
It has also sought to restrain the deletion of names from the electoral rolls following proceedings based on vague notices that do not disclose the relevant factual particulars.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.