Publication of final rolls no issue, will intervene if illegality found in SIR: SC

The court said this as Advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) urged the bench, also comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi, to expedite the next hearing as the final voters list will be published on October 1.

The court said it will take up the matter on October 7.

Bhushan said, “There is gross violation of Rules as well as the EC’s own manual and there is virtually no transparency.” He requested the court to direct the EC to follow the rules.

Justice Kant said it will be like the court presuming that a constitutional authority doesn’t know its obligations. “We will go with the presumption in law that a constitutional authority knows what are the rules and regulations and what are their statutory and constitutional obligations… In any case, if they don’t, we are listing the matter, we are starting on October 7,” Justice Surya Kant said.

The court also refused to modify its September 8 order allowing Aadhaar as the 12th document for inclusion in the voters list, but added that it is an “interim arrangement” and that it is yet to hear arguments on the extent to which it can be relied upon.

“No, nothing today. With regard to its (Aadhaar’s) scientific and evidentiary value and the extent to which it can be relied upon… is yet to be argued. As an interim arrangement, we have made some… We are keeping the issue open… We are not rejecting or accepting,” Justice Surya Kant told Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, who urged the bench to modify the September 8 order.

Senior Advocate A M Singhvi pointed out that EC has now announced SIR exercise across the country. “Wherever they are proposing to start the process, and meanwhile whatever judgment we will deliver here, that will of course apply (pan-India).” “We can’t express any opinion piecemeal. We can start (detailed hearing) on October 7,” Justice Surya Kant said.

Answering a query from the bench on the status of the exercise, Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi appearing for the EC said “enquiry and final consideration of objections etc are going on”. He said the EC had circulated the last order (September 8 order) of the court, and urged the bench to take up the matter after the publication of the final list.

“Please hear it after the final list is published so that the court will be able to assess how it has gone,” he said.

Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranayanan, appearing for ADR, urged the court to also hear the parties on the proposed nationwide SIR exercise.