NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday orally reiterated that deletion from the electoral roll after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise will not automatically result in the loss of the citizenship status.
The Court pointed out that it had made it clear in the Bihar SIR judgment that the ultimate authority to determine citizenship was not the Election Commission of India, and the removal from electoral rolls cannot, by itself, result in the deprivation of citizenship.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice V Mohana was hearing a petition filed by Prasenjit Bose, seeking various reliefs to streamline the hearing process in the appellate tribunals constituted to hear the appeals of SIR-excluded persons.
Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, for the petitioner, submitted that as per reports, 34 lakh appeals are still pending before the 19 Appellate Tribunals (from which 2 judges have resigned). He pointed out that very few appeals (around 38,000) have been decided so far, and they show that at least 70% of the appeals are allowed.
While the appeals are pending, the West Bengal Government has issued notifications to deny benefits under the Public Distribution System (PDS), and welfare measures such as Annapurna Yojana to those deleted from the electoral rolls. Even caste certificates are being denied to those persons, the senior counsel highlighted.
At this point, Justice Bagchi said that in terms of the Court’s Bihar SIR judgment, the ECI is not a constitutional authority to decide citizenship. Rather, once person is removed from the electoral roll on doubtful citizenship, the ECI has a duty to make an application to the Centre for determination of their citizenship status.
“We are conscious of this. In our Bihar SIR judgment, we made clear that ECI has a corresponding duty that as soon as there is a decision, it has to refer to the Ministry for adjudication under Citizenship Act. Unless that is done, status must go on”, said Justice Bagchi.
In response, Gopal S urged that nobody apprehended that after the SIR, the Government will start denying other benefits to persons deleted from the rolls.
Supreme Court Explains Tests “I think to be fair, I don’t think either they disclosed or we apprehended at all that all these other welfare schemes which are available to people who reside here would also be withdrawn. I don’t think that was apprehended by your lordships because then I presume your lordships could add one sentence saying, while it’s being adjudicated, please don’t take other civil rights which are available to citizens.”
On this, Justice Bagchi said, “Our judgment is clear – ECI is not a constitutional authority with regard to status under Art 9, 10, 11 and 12…ECI has control over rolls. It can decide not to include someone. However, that does not result in loss of status of citizenship per se. Therefore, we have given corresponding duty.”
Sankaranarayanan however submitted that on ground level, citizenship benefits are being denied to those persons.
