EC tells SC it has duty to weed out foreigners

EC tells SC it has duty to weed out foreigners

Counsel for the EC says the Constitution is citizen-centric; the central theme is citizenship

Poll body defends SIR in the Supreme Court, insists it has power to verify citizenship status

EC stresses that NRC register includes all citizens; the electoral rolls only consider those above 18

The Election Commission of India (EC) began its defence of the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls before the Supreme Court on Tuesday by dismissing claims that it is conducting a “parallel” National Register of Citizens (NRC) as sheer “rhetoric”.

The poll body maintained that it has the “constitutional power, even a constitutional duty” to ensure that not a single foreigner, as far as possible, occupies space in the nation’s electoral rolls.

The SIR kicked off in Bihar last year and expanded to cover 12 more States and Union Territories in the ongoing second phase.

“We have a constitutional duty, and not just a constitutional power, to ensure no foreigners are there on the electoral rolls. It is not important how many foreigners are found… It was repeatedly asked of us to show how many foreigners were found in Bihar, but that is not important. Even if there was one foreigner, he had to be excluded. We are not concerned with the rhetoric of the political parties. They may be right or wrong. As the Election Commission, it is our constitutional duty to ensure there are no foreign voters as far as possible,” senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the EC, clarified before a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant.

Faulty comparison

Mr. Dwivedi said the comparison of the SIR with the NRC was devoid of truth. The EC differentiated between the NRC conducted in Assam and the “special revision” of electoral rolls underway in the State.

“The NRC register includes all the people, all citizens, whereas, in electoral rolls it is citizens who are above 18 years of age. Less than that they are not in the electoral roll. A person of unsound mind is excluded from the electoral roll, but is part of the NRC. Preparation of the electoral roll is not a parallel NRC on the face of it,” Mr. Dwivedi contended.

The senior counsel argued that it was for the Centre to issue a ‘national identity card’ and maintain a ‘National Register of Indian Citizens’ and, for that purpose, establish a National Registration Authority under Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955. On the other hand, the EC drew its power to verify citizenship for the “preparation of the electoral rolls” under Article 324 of the Constitution. Mr. Dwivedi said the Constitution was “citizen-centric”, which meant ‘citizenship’ was a central theme.

“All the important functionaries of the three organs of governance have to be citizens of India, be it the President, Vice-President, MPs, MLAs, or judges of the constitutional courts. One of the conditions is that they be citizens… No person is eligible to participate in the electoral process unless he is a citizen,” Mr. Dwivedi said.

Citizenship status

He noted how citizenship had played a prime part in the struggle for nationhood. The Government of India Act, 1935, had allowed a separate electorate for Europeans, leading to an objection raised in the Constituent Assembly.

“From the aforesaid, it is evident that from its inception, the Constituent Assembly intended that authorities responsible for preparation of electoral rolls would enquire into citizenship and exclude those who were not citizens from the electoral rolls of constituencies. Later, the EC was vested with plenary powers with respect to superintendence, direction, and control over all elections, as well as the power to verify the status of citizenship under Article 324 read with Article 326 (adult suffrage),” Mr. Dwivedi submitted for the poll body.

Even the power of Parliament under Article 327 to frame election laws was “subject to provisions of the Constitution”, Mr. Dwivedi said, adding that this means that “the legislative powers of Parliament envisaged under Article 327 are subject to Articles 324 and 326.”

Citizenship Act

Addressing the petitioners’ submission that citizenship was exclusively the domain of the Union government, the EC counsel pointed to Section 9(2) of the Citizenship Act. “The Central government has exclusive jurisdiction only with termination of citizenship on account of voluntary acquisition of foreign citizenship under this provision,” Mr. Dwivedi submitted.