Questioning the timing of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists in Bihar, the Supreme Court on Thursday told the Election Commission that you should have taken action earlier, now it is a bit late. However, it rejected the argument that the Commission has no jurisdiction to carry out this exercise.

The court said that the exercise of Special Intensive Revision is an important issue, which is linked to the roots of democracy and it is related to the right to vote. The Election Commission of India justified the exercise and said that the Aadhaar card is not a “proof of citizenship”.

A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi questioned the non-consideration of Aadhaar card in the list of documents in the special intensive revision of voter lists in Bihar and said that the Election Commission has nothing to do with the citizenship of a person and it comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Election Commission, cited Article 326 of the Constitution and said that every voter must be an Indian citizen and “Aadhaar card is not a proof of citizenship”.

Meanwhile, the bench rejected the argument of the petitioners' lawyers that the Election Commission has no jurisdiction to carry out any such exercise in Bihar. The bench said that what the Election Commission is doing comes under the Constitution and the last such exercise was done in 2003.

Referring to the petitioners' arguments, the bench said that the Election Commission has to answer three questions It will happen because the process of SIR in Bihar is "linked to the root of democracy and it is related to the right to vote." The Supreme Court sought answers from the Election Commission on three issues - whether it has the right to amend the voter list, the process adopted and when this revision can be done. Dwivedi said that with time, revision is necessary to include or remove names in the voter list and SIR is such an exercise. He asked that if the Election Commission does not have the right to amend the voter list, then who will do it? However, the Election Commission assured that no one will be excluded from the voter list without giving an opportunity to present his case. Earlier, the Supreme Court today began hearing on petitions challenging the Election Commission's decision to conduct SIR of voter lists in Bihar. Senior advocate Gopal Shankarnarayanan, appearing for a petitioner, said that revision of voter lists can be allowed under the Representation of the People Act. He said that about 7.9 crore citizens will come under the overall SIR and even voter ID card and Aadhaar card are not being considered. More than 10 petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court regarding this matter, in which the main petitioner is the non-governmental organization 'Association for Democratic Reforms'. Apart from RJD MP Manoj Jha and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress' KC Venugopal, Supriya Sule from Sharad Pawar-led NCP faction, D Raja from CPI, Harinder Singh Malik from Samajwadi Party, Arvind Sawant from Shiv Sena (Ubatha), Sarfaraz Ahmed from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Dipankar Bhattacharya of CPI (ML) have jointly approached the apex court. All the leaders have challenged the Election Commission's order of special intensive revision of voter list in Bihar and requested to direct it to be canceled.