The Supreme Court on Friday verbally reiterated that being excluded as a voter during the special intensive revision of electoral rolls will not automatically result in the persons losing their citizenship, Live Law reported.
The court said that it had ruled earlier that the Election Commission, which is conducting the voter roll revision, does not have the authority to determine a person’s citizenship status.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana made the observation while hearing a petition that the hearing process in the appellate tribunals of West Bengal be streamlined.
The tribunals were set up by the Supreme Court in March for persons to challenge their exclusions from the voter list.
The lawyer representing the petitioner said, citing reports, that 34 lakh appeals were pending before the tribunals. He said that only about 38,000 challenges had been adjudicated upon and that they show that at least 70% of the appeals are accepted.
The counsel submitted that even as the appeals were pending, the West Bengal government had notified measures that would deny benefits under the public distribution system and welfare schemes to persons conclusively excluded from the voter list, Live Law reported.
Caste certificates were also being denied to the persons, the counsel was quoted as having told the court.
The lawyer said that if a person has a passport, “it should be a clear pass” for proving citizenship. In the past few weeks, the Ministry of External Affairs has been reiterating that a passport is a travel document and not proof of citizenship.
The bench listed the matter to be heard along with other pleas challenging the voter roll revision in West Bengal.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court verbally observed that persons whose names were removed from the electoral rolls after the special intensive revision exercise in West Bengal would still be entitled to certain welfare benefits, including subsidised ration.
On May 27, while ruling on pleas challenging the special intensive revision of voter lists in Bihar in 2025, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of the exercise. However, it said that the Election Commission’s inquiries for the purpose of including a person in the voter list do not mean that it can decide on whether the person is an Indian citizen.
Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.
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