New Delhi, India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday sharply cautioned senior advocate Prashant Bhushan against making “sweeping remarks” against the Election Commission of India (ECI), after he described the poll body as a “despot” during arguments challenging the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant and comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi told Mr Bhushan, appearing for the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), to restrict himself to legal issues and refrain from relying on what the court termed “snide remarks made by political parties” opposed to the exercise.
The court’s intervention came after Mr Bhushan alleged that the SIR — an accelerated drive to update voter lists across several states ahead of impending assembly elections — amounted to an impermissible de novo preparation of electoral rolls, violated the Representation of the People Act, and had placed Booth Level Officers (BLOs) under such pressure that at least 30 had taken their own lives.
“A lot of people see the Election Commission as a despot… it does not care for statutory provisions, rules and regulations, and whimsically carries out whatever it feels appropriate,” Mr Bhushan submitted.
The bench immediately cut him short, emphasising that the court would not entertain generalised attacks on a constitutional body. “Confine your arguments to the legal issues raised in the petition,” Justice Kant observed.
Mr Bhushan further contended that the SIR was effectively a disguised citizenship verification drive, a function that lies exclusively with the Ministry of Home Affairs and is outside the ECI’s remit.
Separately, the court heard submissions from petitioners including Congress leader K C Venugopal and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who argued that the revision process followed no prescribed procedure under the Representation of the People Act or the Conduct of Election Rules, rendering it unconstitutional.
In a related application, advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay highlighted alleged intimidation and assaults on BLOs in West Bengal and other states, urging the court to direct deployment of armed forces alongside state police to ensure an accurate voter list. The bench declined to issue specific directions, stating that the ECI and authorities were competent to take appropriate measures.
The SIR exercise has emerged as a flashpoint between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led government and opposition parties, with the latter alleging it is being used to disenfranchise marginalised voters and migrants. The opposition has forced repeated adjournments in Parliament over the issue, though the government has now agreed to a debate on electoral reforms on 9 December.
The Supreme Court is expected to continue hearing the batch of petitions challenging the SIR in the coming weeks.
