The plea said “the impugned SIR order requires the inclusion or retention of a voter’s name in the electoral roll upon production of citizenship documents, including proof of citizenship of either or both parents, failing which the voter is at risk of exclusion.This requirement is ultra vires Article 326 and introduces extraneous qualifications not contemplated by the Constitution of the RP Act 1950.A similar plea has also been filed by NGO Association of Democratic Reforms challenging the poll panel’s direction for SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar.The EC on June 24 issued instructions to carry out an SIR in Bihar, apparently to weed out ineligible names and ensure only eligible citizens are included in the electoral roll.Bihar goes to polls later this year.The NGO has also sought setting aside of the order and communication, arguing that it violates Articles 14, 19, 21, 325, and 326 of the Constitution, as well as provisions of the Representation of People’s Act, 1950, and Rule 21A of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.The NGO’s plea filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan said the EC order “can arbitrarily and without due process” disenfranchise lakhs of voters and disrupt free and fair elections.”That the documentation requirements of the directive, lack of due process as well as the unreasonably short timeline for the said Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Roll in Bihar further make this exercise bound to result in removal of names of lakhs of genuine voters from electoral rolls leading to their disenfranchisement,” the plea said.
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