Owaisi files PIL in Supreme Court challenging Election Commission’s nationwide SIR exercise
AIMIM chief Owaisi moves Supreme Court over Election Commission’s SIR exercise
AIMIM chief Owaisi moves Supreme Court over Election Commission’s SIR exercise
New Delhi: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) President and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has approached the Supreme Court of India with a PIL under Article 32, challenging the manner in which the Election Commission of India (ECI) is executing the nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
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The petition, filed through Advocate-on-Record Lzafeer Ahmad BF, raises substantial questions concerning institutional transparency, automated mass-deletions, software-driven barriers and an unprecedented internal rift among members of the poll panel.
Petition challenges execution and unauthorised modifications
Here are highlights from the petition:
1. Challenging the execution: While acknowledging the court’s earlier ruling in Association for Democratic Reforms vs ECI upholding the ECI’s basic jurisdiction to revise rolls, the petition targets the arbitrary manner and administrative framework used to execute the SIR.
2. Internal Dissent within the ECI: Citing investigative reports, the plea highlights that two Election Commissioners, Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Dr Vivek Joshi, recorded formal objections on at least 14 occasions over 10 months.
They flagged decisions and communications issued in the ECI’s name without collective consultation or majority approval, allegedly violating Section 18 of the 2023 Act.
3. Unauthorised modification of Form 6: The petition points out that the ECI introduced an online declaration on the ECINET portal requiring new voters to link their or their family’s existence to the 2002–2004 SIR rolls.
This substantive requirement was implemented without amending the statutory Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, despite objections from two Election Commissioners who deemed it illegal.
4. Software-Generated Deletions and ‘Logical Discrepancies’: The plea draws attention to millions of notices issued over software-flagged ‘logical discrepancies’ (arising from regional-language transliterations and algorithmic age-gap computations).
t notes that in states like Uttar Pradesh, software auto-generated over 85,000 Form 7 deletion requests bearing officers’ digital signatures without stating independent reasons.
5. Disproportionate impact: Referencing data analyses from Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the petition flags patterns where mass objections and administrative appeals disproportionately targeted minority and Muslim voters, posing severe threats to universal adult suffrage.
