SIR 2.0: Election Commission dismisses allegations of ‘mass disenfranchisement’

The Election Commission (EC), successful abstracted affidavits successful the Supreme Court, submitted that 95.65% of electors successful Tamil Nadu and 99.77% successful West Bengal person already been supplied with pre-filled enumeration forms, dismissing allegations of “mass disenfranchisement”.

The committee said it had already received backmost 58.7% enumeration forms and digitised them.

The apical canvass assemblage dismissed claims by the Opposition that determination was up to 30% elector exclusion successful West Bengal. It said 70.14% completed forms had been received.

It said these statistic “demonstrate that errors, under-inclusiveness and wide disenfranchisement claimed by the petitioner are highly exaggerated”.

The EC said Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 vested it with discretionary powers to behaviour peculiar revision of the electoral rolls “in specified a mode arsenic it thinks fit”.

The canvass assemblage said it had undertaken “intensive revision of peculiar nature” of electoral rolls for each oregon immoderate parts of the state successful the years specified arsenic 1952-53, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1966, 1983-84, 1987-89, 1992, 1993, 1995, 2002, 2003 and 2004.

“The past peculiar intensive revision successful Tamil Nadu was conducted by the EC successful the twelvemonth 2002 for 197 Assembly constituencies, and successful the twelvemonth 2005 for 37 Assembly constituencies with notation to January 1, 2002 and January 1, 2025 arsenic the qualifying dates, respectively,” the affidavit said.

The EC noted that important changes had occurred successful the past 20 years. These included additions and deletions successful the electoral rolls connected a ample standard implicit a agelong period. Urbanisation, and migration had go a regular trend.

“Some electors get registration successful 1 spot and displacement their residence and registry themselves astatine different spot without getting their names deleted from the electoral rotation of the archetypal spot of residence. This has led to repeated entries successful the electoral roll. Thus the EC came to the decision that the concern warrants behaviour of a pan-India SIR, opening with the State of Bihar,” the affidavit explained.

The EC said it had appointed 68,470 booth level officers and nationalist and State governmental parties had 2,38,853 booth level agents successful Tamil Nadu.