Suryaa National Desk: Surya National Bureau, New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has strongly condemned the petitions filed against the process of Special Comprehensive Amendment (SIR) of the Electoral Roll. To this extent... Surya National Bureau, New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has strongly condemned the petitions filed against the process of Special Comprehensive Amendment (SIR) of the Electoral Roll. A comprehensive counter affidavit has been filed in the Supreme Court to this extent. It has been clarified that the three key SIR orders issued in relation to the revision of the voter list were issued with the unanimous approval of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.
It is unfortunate that the commission is making baseless allegations against the constitutional functioning of the commission. Clarification that Form 6 is not amended: The Election Commission has incorporated various points in the counter affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court. The SIR concluded that all the orders were issued with the complete consensus of all the EC members and that there was no truth in the claims that there were internal differences of opinion. The SIR orders have made it clear that the allegations that Form 6 of the 1960 Voter Registration Rules have been amended are completely misleading. It explained that only the central government can amend Form 6 and the SIR declaration is a separate document.
ECINET SECURITY AND PROTECTION OF VOTERS: ECINET has clarified that it is impossible to add or remove any voter's name from the ECINET platform without a lawful order from the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO). It has been revealed that a high-level technical committee comprising experts from IITs and IISC is working to examine the security and transparency of voter registration and removal processes. Voters whose mapping is yet to be completed are not required to attend the hearings themselves, Booth Level Officers (BLO) will go directly to their homes and collect the documents, it said. Process is transparent – Petition to dismiss petitions: EC reported to the court that they are spreading false propaganda against the Election Commission based on mere news articles, and news articles are not evidence in the eyes of law. It asked the apex court to dismiss the respective petitions, explaining that every decision is being followed according to legal provisions.
