New Delhi: A lawyers’ body has constituted an independent commission, comprising retired judges of the Supreme Court and high courts, to review the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The Lawyers Association for Constitution (LAFC) announced that the five-member panel, chaired by former Supreme Court judge Madan B Lokur, would assess whether the voter-list revision exercise met constitutional and legal requirements, and evaluate both the manner in which it was carried out and its consequences for voters.
“The newly-formed independent commission of former judges on the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral roll will function with complete autonomy to examine the constitutional and statutory validity, methodology and overall impact of the SIR exercise on eligible voters,” the association said in a statement.
Panel Composition
Alongside Justice Lokur, the commission includes former Supreme Court judge AK Patnaik, former Jammu and Kashmir High Court chief justice Badar Durrez Ahmad, and former judges Rekha Sharma and Anjana Prakash, as reported by The New Indian Express.
According to LAFC, the panel will look into, among other matters, whether eligible voters remained on the rolls and whether names of ineligible persons were removed in accordance with due process.
The commission is expected to conduct public hearings in different parts of the country. Its full and regional benches will travel to various locations to hear affected voters, civil society groups and subject experts, and record their submissions and testimonies.
LAFC said the former judges would retain sole responsibility for the commission’s conclusions and recommendations.
The association added that several senior advocates — including Kapil Sibal, Prashant Bhushan, Chander Uday Singh, Prashanto Chandra Sen, Raju Ramachandran, Rebecca Mammen John, Warisha Farasat and Vrinda Grover — would offer strategic legal guidance to the panel.