The Supreme Court on Friday orally reiterated that the mere deletion of a person’s citizenship from the voter list in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) will not automatically terminate their citizenship. The Supreme Court clarified that it had already made this clear in its decision on the Bihar SIR.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice V. Mohana made this statement during the hearing of a petition filed by a petitioner named Prasenjit Bose. According to LiveLaw, through several petitions, he is seeking various reliefs for those excluded from the voter list after the SIR.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the petitioner, told the court that the hearing process for appeals filed by those whose names were deleted from the SIR in Bengal is moving very slowly.
Yet the West Bengal government continues to remove such people from welfare schemes and deprive them of benefits.
It was argued that caste certificates were also being denied.
The Supreme Court cited the Bihar SIR judgment.
Regarding these arguments, Justice Joymalya Bagchi stated that in the Bihar SIR judgment itself, the court stated that the Election Commission is not the constitutional authority to determine citizenship. He said, “We are aware of this. In the Bihar SIR judgment, we made it clear that as soon as the Election Commission issues a decision, it is the Election Commission’s responsibility to send it to the Ministry for a decision under the Citizenship Act. Until that happens, the status quo should remain.”
Responding to this, the petitioner’s lawyer told the court that no one imagined that after the SIR, the government would begin depriving people whose names were deleted from the voter list of other benefits. The Supreme Court stated, “Our judgment is clear: the Election Commission is not the constitutional authority with respect to Articles 9, 10, 11, and 12. The Election Commission has control over the voter list. It can decide not to include someone.” But, this does not automatically end the citizenship status.