A panel of five former Supreme Court and high court judges has been set up by a lawyers’ body to examine the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, as the poll panel separately moves to identify and re-enrol voters left out during the exercise.The Lawyers Association for Constitution (LAFC) said the commission, headed by former Supreme Court judge Madan B Lokur, will examine the constitutional and statutory validity of the SIR, its methodology and its overall impact on eligible voters, reported PTI.“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.The other members are 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.Meanwhile, LAFC said senior lawyers including Kapil Sibal, Prashant Bhushan, Chander Uday Singh, Prashanto Chandra Sen, Raju Ramachandran, Rebecca Mammen John, Warisha Farasat and Vrinda Grover will provide strategic legal advice to the commission.The commission will examine whether eligible citizens were retained on the electoral roll and whether ineligible entries were appropriately excluded, the LAFC said.It 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.The LAFC said the commission would function with complete autonomy and have the final responsibility for its findings and recommendations.The panel’s formation comes as the Election Commission has directed state poll officials to launch a special drive to identify and enrol valid voters who were left out after the SIR in states where the exercise has been completed.Under the drive, Booth Level Officers will compare current electoral rolls with pre-SIR lists to identify electors whose names were earlier included but later dropped. They will then conduct house-to-house verification of the identified voters.The BLOs have also been asked to collect Form 6 applications on the spot from eligible first-time voters and genuine left-out electors. The exercise is targeted for completion within a month, with each BLO expected to cover 20 to 25 electors a week.
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The move follows the Election Commission’s September 26 decision to withdraw an additional SIR-related declaration attached to Form 6 in states where the revision has been completed. New applicants in these states will now submit the regular statutory Form 6.The additional declaration remains available in states and Union territories where SIR is still under way. Under it, new applicants are required to provide details linking themselves, their parents or grandparents to electoral rolls prepared during an earlier SIR.
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