Supreme Court issues notice to poll bodies, governments on Maharashtra voter list revision

The Supreme Court has taken a strict view of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) under way in Maharashtra. It has issued notice on allegations of large-scale irregularities in the voter list and the deletion of lakhs of names. The next hearing will be on November 5.

The petition challenges the SIR process. The court has sought replies from the Election Commission of India, the Union government, the Maharashtra State Election Commission and the Maharashtra government.

The petition is to be heard by a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana. The petitioner's lawyers told the court that the final voter list is due to be released on November 6. They said an immediate stay or a decision was therefore needed before the list comes out.

The petitioner alleges irregularities in the draft voter list. These include a discrepancy involving 12 million voters and the deletion of 40.6% of voters' names in some areas, including Pune. The petitioner wants the elections postponed if the voter list cannot be finalised by November.

Senior advocate Arvind P. Datar, appearing for petitioner Arun Anandgiri, argued that Maharashtra has 90 million registered voters. He said about 30 million names have been deleted since the draft list was released.

Questioning the Election Commission's method, the petitioner said the Commission is making deleted voters fill in Form 6 to register again. Datar clarified that Form 6 is meant only for first-time voters. Those who have been voting for many years should not have to fill it in again.

Citing Mumbai and Pune, Datar told the Supreme Court that about 3,500 redevelopment projects are under way in the two cities. As a result, old housing societies are being demolished and thousands of families have had to move elsewhere for some time. Because of the change of address and the absence of on-site verification, the names of such ordinary people have been struck off the voter list, which is wrong, he said.

The petitioner demanded that the process of finalising the voter list be halted until the Supreme Court completes hearing the entire matter. The court declined to extend the deadline immediately, but assured the petitioner that it is taking the matter seriously.

Chief Justice Surya Kant said, "Don't worry, you have come to us as a whistleblower." He said that if the court felt that many eligible people had not yet submitted their documents, it would certainly extend the deadline. He also said the court had extended dates in SIR matters earlier.