Justice Surya Kant supports SIR of Bihar electoral says “Have No Doubt ECI Will Fulfil Their Responsibility”

The Supreme Court of India has shown its unparalleled trust in the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the special revision of electoral rolls that is going on in Bihar. In a petition over the issue, a bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that it has no doubt that the ECI will perform its constitutional duty of providing a clean and accurate voter list in the state.

The case was brought before the apex court under a petition which was very critical on the issues of possible disproportions in the electoral rolls of the state of Bihar. The petition requested the court to intervene in an attempt to get the ECI to carry out a comprehensive cleaning of the voter lists claiming that it had dead persons, duplication of names and other malpractices that would vitiate future elections. The petitioners called upon the presence of a powerful tool to see the integrity of the electoral process.

The Election Commission of India, in reply to the petition, told the Supreme Court that it was already in process of doing a special intensive summary revision of the electoral rolls in Bihar. The ECI described its two-fold approach that covers a full door-to-door checkup by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and the use of the technology to rectify any mistakes. The Commission was convinced that this careful procedure was actually meant to remedy the type of issues the petitioner had been expressing.

Having noted the submissions of the ECI and the proactive steps taken by it the bench of the Supreme Court did not feel that the judiciary needed to intervene. Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that they had confidence in the constitutional body to take the task in hand well. The court made the decision to dismiss the petition by entrusting it to the ECI, stating that what the petitioner wanted to receive was already being handled by the intensive revision program of ECI. The observation by the court is a good confirmation that the ECI is the protector of a free and fair election in the country.