What about names on electoral rolls but not in NRC? SC asks EC to file affidavit

The Supreme Court today asked the Election Commission to file an affidavit on the action the institution will take with respect to the names that reflect in the electoral rolls but not in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of Assam published in July last year..The direction came from the Bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna in a petition seeking voting rights for persons whose names do not figure in the NRC..In the previous hearing, the Court had sought the personal presence of the Secretary of the Election Commission to clarify its stance. After interacting with the Secretary, the Bench asked the Election Commission to furnish details of the enrollments and deletions of names from the electoral rolls in the State of Assam between January 1, 2018 and January 1, 2019..Senior Counsel Vikas Singh, appearing for the Election Commission, submitted that this petition was filed on the false grounds that the names of the petitioners were deleted from the voters’ list. Singh said that the petition was “premised on perjury statements”, given that the names of the petitioners have reflected in the voters lists for the last three years..The Court directed Singh to put his submissions on record..On the allegations that names were being dropped from electoral rolls based on the NRC, the Election Commission told the Court that it has not deleted any names from the voters list on the basis of the NRC..On the last date of hearing in the main NRC matter, the Court remarked that it is not inclined to suspend NRC work till the Lok Sabha elections 2019 are over. The Bench had also pulled up the Central Government for purportedly delaying the finalisation of the NRC..Bar & Bench is available on WhatsApp. For real-time updates on stories, Click here to subscribe to our WhatsApp.