New Delhi: The Supreme Court reiterated on Friday that deletion from the electoral roll following Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise will not automatically result in loss of citizenship status.
The top court pointed out it was made clear in the Bihar SIR judgment that the ultimate authority to determine citizenship was not the Election Commission of India (ECI), and that the removal from electoral rolls cannot, by itself, result in depriving citizenship to any individual, reported LiveLaw.in.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana was hearing a petition seeking reliefs to streamline hearing process in the appellate tribunals constituted to hear appeals of SIR-excluded persons.
In states like West Bengal, people excluded from electoral rolls post SIR are being treated as non-citizens and denied access to welfare schemes.
Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioner, said that as per reports, 34 lakh appeals are still pending before 19 Appellate Tribunals, and only around 38,000 have been decided so far despite at least 70% of the appeals being allowed.
With so many appeals pending, the West Bengal government has issued notifications to deny benefits under Public Distribution System (PDS) and welfare schemes like Annapurna Bhandar to those deleted from electoral rolls. The senior counsel also said that even caste certificates are being denied to those persons.
The top court recalled its May 27 judgment upholding the constitutional validity of SIR exercise, which said that while the ECI has the power to prepare and revise electoral rolls, it is not the constitutional authority to determine citizenship.
“Our judgment is clear – ECI is not a constitutional authority with regard to status under Art 9, 10, 11 and 12… ECI has control over rolls. It can decide not to include someone. However, that does not result in loss of status of citizenship per se. Therefore, we have given corresponding duty,” Justice Bagchi said.
“There is no confusion in law… The ECI can conduct only a limited inquiry to verify citizenship for the purpose of inclusion or deletion of a person from the electoral roll. It cannot legally or finally declare someone a non-citizen,” the Bench observed.
