New Delhi, January 22 (). The Supreme Court heard the constitutional validity of Special Intensive Review (SIR) in Bihar. In this process, the citizenship of the people included in the voter list is being verified, which has been challenged by many petitioners.
During the hearing, the Election Commission (ECI) presented its side. ECI lawyer Rakesh Dwivedi said that when the Citizenship Act was amended in 2003, no one opposed it and it got support from all parties. The court asked whether there was a need for citizenship check in SIR only after that amendment? The ECI clarified that the main objective of the SIR is only to ensure citizenship of voters under Article 326 of the Constitution.
The court asked the ECI what is the meaning of the word ‘migration’ in the SIR order? Is it just to stop illegal infiltration on the border? The ECI replied that migration includes both inter-state and intra-state migration. On this, the Supreme Court raised a strong question that migration means legal migration. Every citizen in India has the constitutional right to move and live in any state, hence inter-state migration cannot be considered illegal.
The petitioners cited decisions of US courts stating that the SIR was a violation of ‘due process’. ECI hit back at this. The lawyer said how much does America itself follow due process? He gave the example of US President Donald Trump talking about removing the Venezuelan President and taking him to trial, as well as expressing his desire to occupy Greenland. In such a situation, how can America talk about due process?
The Supreme Court reserved the decision after hearing the arguments of both the parties. The next hearing of the case will be on January 28. This hearing is being considered very important regarding the method of SIR and citizenship verification of voter list in Bihar, because it can affect the voting rights of millions of people.
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SHK/DKP
