New Delhi [India], October 7 (ANI): Former Kerala High Court judge Justice PN Ravindran on Wednesday defended the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, saying it was aimed at ensuring clean and valid electoral rolls and had been conducted several times in the past.
Speaking on the SIR exercise, Justice Ravindran said the ongoing revision is the ninth such exercise and noted that it had also been carried out when the Congress was in power.
“Special Intensive Revision is the ninth edition of the SIR. It has happened earlier—eight times it has happened. Even when the Congress Party was in power, it happened. Doesn’t mean that the Congress Party controlled the Election Commission. No. It is an exercise that has taken place over several years,” he said.
He said the primary objective of the exercise was to ensure that electoral rolls remained accurate and valid, describing this as an important requirement for the conduct of elections.
“The whole idea is to have a clean electoral roll, which is a significant requirement: a valid electoral roll. It’s a significant need for an election. So, the duty lies with the Election Commission,” Justice Ravindran said.
He further asserted that the Election Commission is an independent constitutional body and that the government does not control its functioning.
“It’s an insulated body; the government doesn’t control it. The charter was written several decades ago when the Constitution was framed,” he said.
Justice Ravindran also said that voters whose names may be deleted during the revision process should use the legal and administrative mechanisms available to them rather than taking their grievances to the streets.
“If I am a voter and my name is deleted, it is for me to work out my remedies. I don’t go to the streets and fight. I go to the authority, namely the courts, and seek redressal of my grievances. There are other authorities also set up,” he said.
The debate intensified after sitting Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan recently remarked in a public address that any administrative action leading to mass disenfranchisement of millions of citizens is “intrinsically arbitrary” and strikes at the heart of the constitutional order.
Addressing the claims of voter deletions cited by Supreme Court Judge Ujjal Bhuyan, Justice Dhingra questioned the factual basis of the assertions and accused the sitting judge of violating judicial ethics, “I don’t know how he came to this conclusion that there was mass disenfranchisement in India. Of the 13 crore people whose numbers are being talked about, about 3 crore people are dead. Then about 2.5 crore or 3 crore people have migrated from their place. Many people have their votes registered at two places, here in Delhi and outside also, or in one state and another state. The purification and rectification, intensive checking of the electoral roll, is the duty of the Election Commission.”
He said Justice Bhuyan forgot that he is a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, and therefore bound by a higher standard of conduct and pointed to the judicial ethics/restatement of values for Supreme Court judges, which says a sitting judge should not comment on matters that are pending before the court, matters likely to come before the court, or sensitive political/constitutional issues on which the Supreme Court may have to give an opinion.
“That’s one thing. Mr. Bhuyan forgot that he was a sitting judge of the Supreme Court. There are rules of ethics to be followed by all sitting judges of the Supreme Court. Those rules state that no sitting judge shall comment upon any pending matter or any matter that is likely to come before the Supreme Court, or any sensitive matter on which the Supreme Court can give an opinion. By making these comments, he has invited upon himself a disqualification,” said Justice Dhingra.
“If you take the rules so casually that you forget that you are bound by some rules, and you are talking about the rules applicable to other institutions, this is very surprising… Justice Bhuyan’s comments are totally illegal, unlawful, and not worthy of consideration even,” he added.
Meanwhile, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was seen lying on the ground as several INDIA bloc MPs were being detained by the Delhi Police on their way to Jantar Mantar amid an agitation against CEC Gyanesh Kumar over the alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
According to Congress, Priyanka Gandhi said, “I will not move from here. This is how they treat MPs who simply want to meet the Election Commission. This is how they beat up MPs. Women police personnel have scratched me all over and thrown us to the ground. Let them call their forces back.”
Police personnel removed Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from the site near Jantar Mantar. (ANI)
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