The Election Commission on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it is entitled to examine the citizenship of individuals to decide whether they are eligible to be included in voters’ lists, The Indian Express reported.
Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, for the poll panel, told a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that the electoral registration officer was “competent to take a view” under Article 326 of the Constitution, the Representation of People Act and the Registration of Electors Rules.
Article 326 establishes elections to the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies to be based on adult suffrage.
The bench has been hearing petitions against the validity of the special intensive revision of the electoral rolls being conducted across the country.
Dwiwedi noted that in several regulatory frameworks, such as those governing mining leases or other statutory benefits, citizenship was a prerequisite and could be inquired into by the competent authority, PTI reported.
During the course of the hearing, the bench also asked whether it was within the scheme of the Citizenship Act to refer the electoral registration officer’s findings that a person is not a citizen to the Union government and strip him off voting rights even before it takes a decision.
The decision of the Union government “would be for the purpose of examining whether he is entitled to stay in India or should be deported or not”, Dwivedi said, adding that it was the Election Commission that has the power “as far as electoral roll is concerned”, the newspaper reported.
“That’s enough to strike him off the electoral roll,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying.
The advocate also noted that there were enough safeguards for an aggrieved person.
Dwivedi also noted that Article 326 does not explain how to decide on citizenship. Article 5 of the Constitution speaks about who shall be the citizen of India at its commencement, he added.
Article 5 defines citizenship at the Constitution’s commencement on January 26, 1950.
“But what is to happen (after), because this is a continuous process of people coming into being and passing out of being, it does not say,” The Indian Express quoted the advocate as saying.
In response, the chief justice said that the “expression used in Articles 5, 6 and 7 are transitional in nature” as at the time of the creation of the country, its residents needed to take a final decision as to where they would finally settle down.
Article 6 grants citizenship rights to certain persons who migrated from Pakistan to India after the Partition and Article 7 addresses citizenship for those who migrated from India to Pakistan after March 1, 1947.
Dwivedi added that these sections do not help in deciding citizenship.
“They furnish no criteria for deciding how, but it does tell us two things that domicile, residence and birth in India are important,” the newspaper quoted the advocate as saying. “The most important is birth.”
The bench will continue hearing the matter on Thursday.
The special intensive revision of the electoral rolls is underway in 12 states and Union Territories.
In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly elections in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll published on September 30.
Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll.
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