Constitutional Duty to Ensure Foreigners Not on Electoral Rolls: EC tells Supreme Court

The term 'citizens' under Article 326 has to be inquired by the competent authority, where the constitutional duty of the election commission comes in, the poll body told the court while stating that the SIR cannot be equated with NRC.

The Wire Staff

constitutional duty to ensure foreigners not on electoral rolls ec tells supreme court

A view of the Supreme Court of India. Photo: PTI

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (EC) told the Supreme Court on Tuesday (January 6) that it is its constitutional duty to ensure that no foreign nationals are on the electoral rolls, and that the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of the voter rolls in the country cannot be equated with the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

During a hearing on pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the SIR, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi appearing for the poll body said that constitution is "citizen-centric" and the term "citizens" under Article 326 has to be inquired by the competent authority, where the constitutional duty of the Election Commission comes in.

"Article 326, when it says citizens, that is something which has to be enquired by the competent authority, what should be nature- summary etc, that's a different question, but competence- that's a constitutional duty, to ensure that on the electoral roll there should not be any foreigners, like the Europeans, even if there is 1 or 10 or 1000s foreigners- they have to be excluded," Dwivedi was quoted as saying by LiveLaw.

Dwivedi further said that the constitution was predominantly “citizen-centric."

He pointed to provisions on the appointments of the President, Vice President, member of parliament, member of the legislative assembly, judges of the Supreme Court and high courts, which mandate citizenship as a key requirement.

"All vital appointments, no appointments can be made unless the person is a citizen, so our constitution is citizen-centric predominantly," he said.

Dwivedi also said that the poll body is not concerned about political rhetoric of political parties but only about conducting its constitutional duty

"We are not concerned here as the ECI, of the rhetoric of the political parties- who is saying what, political parties may adopt extreme positions- I am not commenting on that at all. As the ECI, it's our constitutional duty to ensure that there is no voter (left out)...perfection is a goal we wish to achieve, but not rarely achieved in any field," he said.

Addressing the argument that the conduct of the SIR is like a parallel NRC, Dwivedi was quoted as saying that the two cannot be equated as the same.

"It was said that we were carrying out a parallel NRC, but that was rhetorical, because the NRC register includes all the people of India, whereas under the electoral roll, the citizens included are above the age of 18 years; persons less than that age are not included in the electoral roll. A person of unsound mind, if he is a citizen, he will be excluded from the electoral roll, but will be part of the NRC. He is a citizen still, but disqualified (from voting)," he reportedly said.

This article went live on January seventh, two thousand twenty six, at fifty-two minutes past six in the evening.

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