Bihar SIR: A Battle Between Election Commission’s Power and Citizens’ Right to Vote

• The Supreme Court has ruled that the special intensive revision (SIR) of Bihar’s electoral rolls is a conflict between the Election Commission’s power and the right of ordinary citizens to vote.

• Justice Joymalya Bagchi, part of the Bench, argued that the procedure of sending pre-filled enumeration forms to electors and then deleting 65 lakh of them without any prior enquiry or physical hearing was a “casual way of doing away with citizens’ right to vote.”

• The court referred to the “elbow room” provided to the EC under Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People (RP) Act, which allows the EC to conduct a “special revision” in any manner it may think fit.

• However, the senior advocate, Mr. Sankaranarayanan, argued that Section 21(3) only contemplated a special revision of “any one constituency or a part of a constituency”.

• Justice Bagchi stated that the provision authorizes the EC to devise procedures for special revision in case of exceptional circumstances like a natural disaster.

• The court also debated whether giving citizens an option to choose from as many as 11 ‘indicative’ documents to prove their citizenship could be considered “voter-inclusive” rather than “voter-exclusionary.”

Bihar SIR Controversy is important topic for Civil service exam (WBCS).

🚨Daily Current Affairs MCQ pdf download- Google Drive Link https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PN6A2mDkCngLsGR115zhZ_vTV8W7AKN8?usp=drive_link

✅Telegram channel link: https://t.me/TheSoumyaSir

✅Attempt the daily current affairs test in our free section of app (android and ios) : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.iron.rrnvu

✅ Interview related telegram group https://t.me/IASWBCSInterview 🔥 Book free consultation with WBCS Gr A Officer: https://bit.ly/Free-Appointment-with-Soumya-Sir-Other-WBCS-A-Officer

✅ Courses https://www.wbcsmadeeasy.in/courses/

✅ Attempt previous years questions : Link: https://bit.ly/wbcs-pyq-wbcsmadeeasy

✅ Take subject wise Chapterwise mock test : https://bit.ly/wbcs-prelims-all-subjects-chapter-wise-test

✅ Bio – https://bit.ly/m/wbcs-made-easy

✅ App download – Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.iron.rrnvu&pcampaignid=web_share (iOS available too)

WBCS MADE EASY www.wbcsmadeeasy.in

8274048710/8585843673

Jawahar IAS www.jawaharias.in 7439954855