Supreme Court Seeks ECI Response on Delhi SIR Notices

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the Election Commission of India's response to a petition challenging the manner in which verification notices are being issued to voters during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Delhi. A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana issued formal notice to the ECI, directed it to explain the immediate steps taken so far, and posted the matter for hearing after two weeks. During the hearing, Justice Bagchi observed that the notices appear to be going out almost mechanically and are in all probability machine-generated, and asked the ECI to examine whether additional safeguards or filters are needed before notices are issued. The bench said the basis for identifying what the ECI calls a logical discrepancy also required clarification, and that notices should clearly tell voters what they need to explain. The Chief Justice illustrated the point with a personal example, noting that a notice to a voter who had moved to Delhi could simply ask whether the person had been voting in Delhi or elsewhere in a particular year.