NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would not hesitate to extend the deadline for the publication of the draft electoral rolls in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu if the petitioners make a strong case, while the Election Commission of India (ECI) claimed that some political parties were trying to create “a scare” about the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi made the oral observation while hearing petitions challenging the SIR exercise in the two states.
The remark about extending the deadline for publication of the draft rolls came after the parties appearing in the SIR for West Bengal raised concerns about the court fixing the next date of hearing to December 9, which they claimed was the date for publication of the draft roll as per the SIR schedule.
“So what? If you make out a case, then we can direct them to extend the date. Can that date (publication of draft roll) be a ground for the court to say we don’t have any power now? Court can always say,” the CJI said.
For its part, the ECI told the court that some political parties are creating a ‘scare’ about the SIR being undertaken Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala. “Political parties are creating unnecessary scare,” the poll panel said.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan said the SIR was being conducted in a “great hurry”.
The bench asked the ECI to file its counter-affidavit to the petitions relating to Tamil Nadu and West Bengal by December 4 and December 9, respectively.
The bench also posted the pleas seeking deferment of the Kerala SIR to December 2, while asking the ECI and State Election Commission to file their responses by December 1. SIR in Tamil Nadu has been challenged by DMK, CPI(M), and actor Vijay’s TVK. The AlADMK, on the other hand, has filed an application supporting the SIR.
During the hearing, the bench observed that the EC has “inherent power to determine correctness of entry in Form 6”.
The hearing will continue on Thursday.
‘Reason to challenge not good enough’
That the SIR was never conducted before is not a ground to challenge the Election Commission’s decision to carry out this exercise in several states, the SC said