New Delhi, May 28 -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday held that the Election Commission is empowered to conduct a limited scrutiny of citizenship status while preparing and revising electoral rolls.
The top court, however, clarified that such scrutiny cannot amount to a final adjudication of citizenship, which remains the exclusive domain of central government authorities under the Citizenship Act.
The observations on the effect of citizenship were made by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant in the significant verdict upholding the Election Commission's (EC's) power to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls.
The bench held that the EC has the authority to examine citizenship status only for the limited pu...