Lucknow, May 27 (IANS). Islamic religious leaders on Wednesday welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision on ‘Special Intensive Revision’ (SIR) of voter lists, saying no one should now have any objection to the electoral process.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the Election Commission of India’s decision to conduct SIR (Special Intensive Review) of the voter list. The court said that this work of improving the voter list comes within the scope of the constitutional and legal rights of the Election Commission and its objective is to maintain the sanctity of the electoral process.
All India Muslim Jamaat President Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision on SIR, saying that the recent assembly elections conducted by the Election Commission in Assam, West Bengal, Puducherry, Kerala and Tamil Nadu were completely fair.
According to Maulana Barelvi, it is necessary to do SIR to make a clean and clear voter list, because there are many voters who are either dead or have moved to other places.
He told news agency IANS that there is no question of any irregularity on the part of the Election Commission of India in this. There is no basis for anyone to object to this.
Maulana Mirza Mohammad Yasoob Abbas, General Secretary of All India Shia Personal Law Board, said that there is no need for anyone to point fingers at the decision of the country’s highest court. There is no point in commenting on this now.
He told IANS that when the matter became controversial it went to the Supreme Court. The court has now upheld its validity.
He said that if objections are raised in the country’s biggest court, it means that we are raising questions on the judicial system of the country itself.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that the SIR process did not violate the provisions of the ‘Representation of the People Act’ (RPA) 1950, or the rules made thereunder. The bench also held that the Election Commission is authorized to conduct such revision under Article 324 of the Constitution read with Section 21(3) of the RPA.
–IANS
DKM/DKP