"Legality of Election Commission's Electoral Roll Revision Questioned"
Special Intensive Revision (SIR)
a recent large-scale electoral roll exercise with no explicit basis in the Representation of the People Act, 1950
Electoral roll
the official list of persons entitled to vote in a constituency
The ECI's day-to-day power to revise electoral rolls flows not from Article 324 alone but from statute. Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 lays down how electoral rolls are prepared and revised. Section 21(2) requires periodic revision before every general election, before every by-election, and in any year the ECI itself directs. Section 21(3) separately allows a special revision, but only 'for any constituency or part of a constituency', meaning it is meant for limited, specific situations, not a blanket nationwide exercise. Rule 25 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 adds that a revision under Section 21(2) can be intensive, summary, or partly both. Nowhere in this statutory scheme does the expression 'Special Intensive Revision' appear.
This matters because Article 324, however wide it appears, is not an unlimited reservoir of power. In Mohinder Singh Gill v. Chief Election Commissioner (1978), the Supreme Court held that Article 324 gives the ECI a residuary or plenary power to act when the election law is silent on a situation, so that elections are not derailed, but this power cannot be used to override or act in defiance of what a statute already provides. Election dispute adjudication is a useful illustration of this boundary: deciding whether a particular election itself was valid is a function of courts, through an election petition under the Act, and not a power the CEC or the Commission exercises directly. The ECI's mandate is therefore extensive but does not exceed the four corners of law set by Parliament.
The present controversy concerns the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls carried out in several States. Since this process has no clear basis in Section 21 or Rule 25, questions have been raised about whether the exercise amounts to the Commission inventing a category of revision the law does not recognise, and whether large-scale deletions carried out under it followed due procedure. What makes the present moment unusual is that the criticism is no longer only external: some Election Commissioners within the ECI have themselves reportedly objected to actions of the CEC as 'illegal and unconstitutional', an echo of the exact fear the Constituent Assembly tried to legislate against nearly eight decades ago, that a CEC could function as a loyalist of the party in power rather than as a neutral umpire. …
Consider the following statements:
1.Union Territories are not represented in the Rajya Sabha.
2.It is within the purview of the Chief Election Commissioner to adjudicate the election disputes.
3.According to the Constitution of India, the Parliament consists of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha only.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Consider the following statements regarding the Election Commission of India (ECI): 1. The ECI conducts elections to the Lok Sabha, the Rajya Sabha, and the State Legislatures. 2. The ECI conducts elections to the office of the President and the Vice-President of India. 3. The ECI conducts elections to Panchayats and Municipalities. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
With reference to the revision of electoral rolls under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, consider the following statements: 1. Section 21(2) requires revision of electoral rolls before every general election to the House of the People or a State Legislative Assembly. 2. Section 21(3) empowers the Election Commission to direct a special revision of the electoral roll for any constituency or part thereof, for reasons to be recorded. 3. The term 'Special Intensive Revision' is explicitly defined under Section 21 of the Act. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Match List-I (Article of the Constitution) with List-II (Subject Matter) and select the correct answer using the code given below: List-I:
A.Article 324,
B.Article 325,
C.Article 326,
D.Article
329.List-II:
1.Bar to interference by courts in electoral matters,
2.Elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies on the basis of adult suffrage,
3.Superintendence, direction and control of elections vested in the Election Commission,
4.No discrimination in electoral rolls on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex.
Which of the following statements about the composition of the Election Commission of India is correct?
With reference to the Constituent Assembly debates on the Election Commission, consider the following statements: 1. The original Draft Article proposed a decentralised election machinery with a Chief Election Commissioner for each province. 2. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar moved an amendment to centralise the election machinery under a single Election Commission at the Centre. 3. The proposal for centralisation was prompted by complaints of large-scale deletion of voters by provincial election machinery under political influence. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
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