New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said it would interfere if it finds any illegality in the Election Commission’s Special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, while fixing October 7 for hearing final arguments.
Although the petitioners requested for a hearing before October 1 –when the final voters list would be published by the EC after the SIR– the bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi refused to change the date.
The court stressed that the publication of the voters’ list will not make any difference, as it would interfere in case of any illegality.
“What difference will it (the final publication of the list) make to us? If we are satisfied there is some illegality, we can…,” Justice Kant said.
“Our judgement in Bihar SIR will be applicable for Pan-India SIR,” the bench said, clarifying it can’t stop the poll panel from conducting a similar exercise for revision of electoral roll across the country.
The bench, however, allowed petitioners against the Bihar SIR exercise to also argue on the pan-India SIR on October 7.
The top court, in the meantime, issued notice on a plea seeking the recall of the September 8 top court order directing the poll panel to include the Aadhaar card as the 12th prescribed document in the Bihar SIR.
On September 8, the apex court clarified that Aadhaar will not be proof of citizenship and the poll panel can ascertain its genuineness on being submitted by an elector for inclusion in the electoral roll.
