The Supreme Court on July 17 reaffirmed that exclusion or deletion of a person’s name from the electoral rolls under the SIR exercise does not amount to loss of Indian citizenship and cannot be used to deny access to government welfare schemes.
Hearing a batch of petitions, a Bench comprising CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana expressed concern over reports that individuals whose names had been removed from electoral rolls were being treated as non-citizens and denied welfare benefits in some states, including West Bengal.
The court made the observation while issuing notices to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the West Bengal government on a plea seeking directions that persons removed from electoral rolls after rejection of their appeals by Special Tribunals under the SIR exercise should continue to receive benefits under government welfare schemes.
Recalling its May 27 judgment upholding the constitutional validity of the SIR exercise, the Bench clarified that the ECI’s role is limited to preparing and revising electoral rolls and doesn’t extend to deciding questions of citizenship.
“The ECI has control and superintendence over the electoral roll. We explicitly clarified that exclusion or deletion from the voter list under the SIR does not equate to a loss of citizenship,” the Bench observed.
The ECI “cannot legally or finally declare someone a non-citizen,” the court said.