Electoral roll purges raise constitutional questions

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has invented the term “logical discrepancy” to delete voters from the voters’ list in the recent elections (the States of Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, and the Union Territory of Puducherry). It is alleged that lakhs of voters have been removed from the voter list in States where elections have been held recently. Even the Supreme Court of India’s innovative idea of tribunals could not get these voters back onto the list, mainly because of the near-total mess created by the ECI’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls exercise.

It has been pointed out by many commentators — including this writer in this daily — that the SIR, as designed by the ECI, is deeply flawed and, if continued, will result in the elimination of a very large number of Indian citizens from the electoral roll. Media reports indicate an alarming situation, particularly in West Bengal, where lakhs of genuine citizens have had their names removed from the electoral roll and placed under the category of “logical discrepancies”. The fact is that many of them were unable to vote in the election/first phase of the election.