‘Is SIR faulty?’: Court to Centre over discrepancy claim on voter ID of detained ‘Bangladeshi’

However, Central government counsel Aditya Singh, representing the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), contested the document, arguing that discrepancies remain in the petitioner’s records.

“There are other voter cards of the same person with the same identity, but different dates of birth. They themselves had produced it,” Singh argued.

“The year of birth is mentioned as 1994 in the card produced now, while the earlier card produced by the petitioner himself shows his year of birth as 1986 under the same voter card number. Let the ECI clarify the basis on which the date was changed, and let us see the documents relied upon for this correction.”

D’Rozario countered, questioning whether the Central authorities were invalidating official verification exercises. “Is the Union Government submitting that the gruelling Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise is not reliable? Let it come on record that they are not going to stand by the SIR process.”

Justice Suraj Govindaraj took strong exception to the Centre’s line of argument. “Is your submission that the SIR conducted is faulty?” Justice Govindaraj remarked orally.

“If the SIR was conducted properly and this is the voter ID card issued, you are bound by it, and we are also bound by it. You cannot continuously make these submissions. Are you saying that the SIR now conducted is faulty? We will record it if you say so.”

When Singh clarified that he was merely pointing out an existing discrepancy rather than formally challenging the SIR, Justice Govindaraj responded: “If you are pointing out a discrepancy, does that not imply the SIR conducted is faulty? We will go by that.”

‘What more documents can I produce?’

Days into his custody, Biswas suffered a heart attack and was hospitalised. Following a second cardiac episode on December 19, he was released on medical grounds. Biswas subsequently moved the Karnataka High Court seeking to cancel the detention order passed by the FRRO and secure complete relief from further detention.

Advocate D’Rozario highlighted the immense toll the process had taken on his client, noting that several lakhs of names had already been scrutinised during electoral roll updates.

D’Rozario submitted, “34 lakh people were removed from the rolls due to discrepancies. The authorities have verified all my documents, as well as those of my parents.”

“From August till now, I have been put through this process. What more documents can I produce? The SIR was presented as the ultimate test, and now my learned friend is saying it is also not reliable. I have nowhere left to go. This cannot become an endless roving inquiry.”

Turning to counsel for the Election Commission, the bench asked whether the commission had indeed issued the new voter ID card to Biswas. The ECI counsel requested time to seek instructions from the body.

“If you (ECI) have issued the new voter ID card, then everybody is bound by it—it is as simple as that,” the court noted.

The court gave the ECI counsel one week to determine whether these documents were issued by the poll body itself, and relisted the matter for July 31.

The court also permitted counsel representing the West Bengal government to file any outstanding documents or pleadings before the next hearing date.