EC Cannot Seek Data to Establish Citizenship, Unjust SIR Not Acceptable: CPI(M)

New Delhi: It was a sigh of relief for Mustari Bano when the Supreme Court on Monday extended the deadline for culmination of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in West Bengal and upheld that Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) and Assistant EROs were the final authority to add or delete a voter. It also held that the EROs can only delete the names of voters after verifying the veracity of the documents furnished by the objectors.

Mustari Bano, a resident of Bhagwanhola in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, with coordination from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M), had filed the original petition challenging the notification of SIR in the apex court on the grounds that it had put different conditions in comparison with other states to roll out the exercise, which were discriminatory to the people of West Bengal.

After the day-long hearing, Mustari Bano, along with her advocates, addressed a press briefing at A K Gopalan Bhawan in New Delhi, along with Nilotpal Basu, politburo member of the CPI(M). Basu said that his party was opposed to the “non-transparent” implementation of SIR in Bihar.

“In the current plea, we have made it clear that it is correct that only citizens of the country are eligible to vote as per Article 328 of the Constitution. However, determining the citizenship of the people is not the executive function of the Election Commission of India (ECI) that it is illegally trying to assume,” he said.

Basu added: “What was said was that they have started this new method where previously, a citizen did not have to fill out any separate form. The ECI and their representatives would visit homes themselves to include names. But this is the first time that someone has to submit a request, which is then followed by an intensive investigation to bring the truth to light. Intensive in the sense that officials of ECI itself will go and will check the veracity of the claims made in those applications.”

Questioning the validity of linking voters on the basis 2002-2003 voters’ list, Basu said: “We are not clear what is the greatness about this 2002 list. Anyway, that is the process they (ECI) have adopted. Subsequently, about 58 lakh names were found missing from the list on which the 2014 elections or even the latest election, that is the 2021 Assembly elections, took place in the state”.

Basu said after striking off 58 lakh names, a very large number, more than 1 crore people, have been arbitrarily called for hearing to check the veracity of whether they are eligible to be on the electoral roll. “And there we find that whatever the ECI was claiming from the outset, that the whole process will be manual and intensive, was not so. There has been arbitrary use of AI (Artificial Intelligence). And on the basis of that, they have created the so-called list of ‘doubtful’ voters.”

Calling out the argument of logical inconsistency, the CPI(M) leader said that ECI officials have called a lot of people for a public hearing. “There is no clarity, there is no transparency on that. And as a result, it is leading to a lot of harassment of people. In Bengal, particularly, we are seeing a clear bias, both economic and social. The poorer sections of the people, minorities, and other vulnerable sections, are being forced to face that second phase of hearing,” he added.

Talking to NewsClick on the sidelines of the press conference, Mustari Bano, who appeared determined to fight this tedious legal battle, said she had filed the case primarily to ask the apex court to reflect upon the hardships of migrant people. “I used to receive news every day about migrant workers receiving notices regarding deletion of their names from the electoral roll. This has created confusion and frustration among people. BLOs started committing suicide under the pressure of work. This is unacceptable,” she added.

Later, addressing the media, Mustari Bano said, “the people of West Bengal are suffering due to the SIR process which is ongoing in India and particularly in West Bengal. Earlier, the ECI promised that none of the names in the electoral roll of 2002 will be deleted. But despite such a promise, many names have been deleted. My name was in the 2002 electoral roll, but I have also been targeted in the process, and I have also been victimised.”

On Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who appeared in Supreme Court to highlight the state’s problems with SIR implementation, Mustari Bano said: “The Chief Minister should have thought about the process much earlier, and from the very beginning, she should have given more attention to the problems of the people which have cropped up due to the SIR process. After the admission of the case, several interim orders were passed in connection with this case, as well as other cases also.”

Sabyasachi Chatterjee, senior counsel, who is pleading Mustari Bano’s case, said: “We specifically pleaded in our petition that introduction of the enumeration form is unconstitutional. You cannot use this electoral roll process as a process to collect data from the people. And that's why we are apprehending that this data is going to be used against individual citizens not only to disenfranchise them but also to declare them as non-citizens.”

He added: “Already several people, particularly from the minority community, are getting notices from the ECI that they would have to appear on the grounds of being non-Indian citizens. We drew the attention of the court today, particularly in respect of a few of the notices that were issued in respect of 173 Mullahpara constituency within the district of Howrah.”

Chatterjee said that “en masse notices have been issued in two particular lanes, one is Mollahpara, and the other is Gulam Mohammad Sardar Lane, where you'll not find the name of the objector. The objector's name remains blank or the objector's name is given as X, address is given as 5/1, West Bengal. There is a mandate under the registration of the election rules that the objector's identity has to be revealed. An objector must be present at the time of hearing. Without revealing the identity of the objector, nobody can pray for deletion of names on any of the grounds.”

The advocate said Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee should have acted promptly to highlight the harassment. “The minority community in Bengal has been targeted, poor people have also been targeted. They are the ones getting the notices. Mostari Bano has raised this issue”, he said, adding: “the Honourable Chief Minister filed one public interest litigation. I'm not saying that it's bad, it's good, she has taken care of this, but she should have reacted like this much earlier. From the very beginning, I found in her petition that she had expressed her concern that SIR is NRC-like process. That one line, but she did not bother to file a case.”