Petitioners submit 88% not issued notices in TN as objections phase ends on Jan 30, SC schedules urgent hearing on Jan 29

Ruling party leaders in Tamil Nadu made a fervent plea that 88% of voters excluded from the draft electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the name of logical discrepancies and mapping had not received hearing notices, compelling the Supreme Court to schedule an urgent session on January 29 with the Election Commission of India present for giving an explanation.

Appearing before a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the petitioners-leaders from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), submitted that the objections-and-claims phase in Tamil Nadu was coming to a close on January 30.

“Notices have been generated only for 18 lakh people. There is a gap of 88%. These people have not received notices. The phase is ending on January 30. If a hearing is delayed, the situation would become fait accompli,” Mr. Sibal urged the court.

He suggested that the court should extend the directions issued in the January 19 order in the West Bengal SIR case to Tamil Nadu as well.

“It is the same reasons for excluding people - logical discrepancies, mapping, etc,” Mr. Sibal submitted.

Senior advocate Dama Seshadhiri Naidu, appearing for the Election Commission of India (ECI), sought an adjournment of the case. He suggested the day after (January 30) or on February 2.

Mr. Sibal objected, saying there was no point in hearing the case on either date as the last date for filing objections and claims was January 30.

Chief Justice Kant fixed the hearing in the Tamil Nadu case on January 29, asking Mr. Naidu to appear online if necessary.

Mr. Sibal submitted that there were further problems with the West Bengal SIR. He said the EC would just not be able to hear all the people excluded from the draft rolls in the State.

“They cannot complete this exercise. They will have to hear nine lakh people everyday to complete this exercise. So far, they have only given hearings to one lakh people,” Mr. Sibal submitted for the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders from West Bengal.

In West Bengal, approximately 1.40 crore individuals were issued notices for document verification. The recipients of these notices were broadly categorised into three parts: mapped (the category of voters linked with the 2002 SIR, unmapped (the category of voters not linked with 2002 SIR) and the third category involving ‘logical discrepancies’, accounting for approximately 1.36 crore voters.

These ‘logical discrepancies’ cited involved a mismatch of the father’s name, a mismatch of parents’ ages, a difference in parents’ ages of more than 50 years, a difference in grandparents’ ages of less than 40 years, and those having more than six progeny.

Mr. Sibal said the ‘logical discrepancies’ cited in Tamil Nadu by the EC were more or less the same as in West Bengal.

Scheduling the Tamil Nadu SIR case on January 29, Chief Justice Kant orally mooted that, like in West Bengal, the EC could display the names of the persons figuring in the logical discrepancies at gram panchayat bhawans, public places in talukas and block offices of talukas (Sub-Divisions) as well as in the ward offices in the cities of the urban areas.

Similarly, the Chief Justice, referring to the January 19 direction in West Bengal, said in Tamil Nadu also persons likely to be affected could be permitted to submit their documents/objections through their authorised representatives. These documents/objections could also be permitted to be submitted at the panchayat bhawans or block offices.

The Supreme Court had, on January 19, directed the EC to provide an additional 10 days to all persons who had not yet submitted their claims, documents or objections. Chief Justice Kant said the same extension of time could be given in the case of Tamil Nadu too.