The Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise came under fresh scrutiny on two fronts on Friday, as former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi accused the poll body of having “abetted a crime” through its special drive for Form 6 submissions by voters who had been deleted from electoral rolls, even as a group of retired Supreme Court and High Court judges constituted an independent panel to examine the SIR process.
In a post on X, Quraishi claimed that Form 6, the application for new voter registration, was “only for new voters” and said the Election Commission’s press statement on October 1 showed “ECI’s abetment” of the crime.
Quraishi questioned the use of Form 6, saying, “All those who have been forced to fill it have committed a criminal offense carrying a 1-year prison sentence”. He said that the Election Commission officials “who forced them are abettors to the crime,” he said.
Meanwhile, a lawyers’ association has set up a panel of former Supreme Court and high court judges to examine the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral roll undertaken by the Election Commission.
The Lawyers Association for Constitution (LAFC), in a release, said the five-member commission, headed by former Supreme Court judge Madan B Lokur, will examine the constitutional and statutory validity, methodology and overall impact of the exercise to revise the voter list.
Besides Lokur, the panel will comprise former Supreme Court judge A K Patnaik, former chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Badar Durrez Ahmad and former judges Rekha Sharma and Anjana Prakash.
“The newly-formed independent commission of former judges on the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral roll will function with complete autonomy to examine the constitutional and statutory validity, methodology and overall impact of the SIR exercise on eligible voters,” it said.
As part of its inquiry, the commission plans to hold public hearings across the country, with full and regional benches travelling to different locations to record the views and testimonies of affected citizens, civil society organisations and experts.
It said a number of senior lawyers, including Kapil Sibal, Prashant Bhushan, Chander Uday Singh, Prashanto Chandra Sen, Raju Ramachandran, Rebecca Mammen John, Warisha Farasat and Vrinda Grover, would provide strategic legal advice to the commission.
Last week, the EC withdrew the additional SIR-related declaration from the online voter enrolment Form 6 in states where the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls has been completed, days after the full Commission decided that the requirement would apply only during the exercise.
The declaration, which requires new applicants to furnish details linking themselves or their parents or grandparents to electoral rolls prepared during an earlier intensive revision, remains available on the ECINET portal in states and Union Territories where the SIR is underway.