NCP (SP) backs Justice Bhuyan’s SIR remarks, hits out at BJP

Mumbai: The Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (SP) on Monday backed the critical remarks of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan of the Supreme Court on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.


Speaking on Sunday in NALSAR University in Hyderabad, the apex court judge had said any process that "disenfranchises" millions of Indian citizens is "intrinsically arbitrary" and a "negation" of the constitutional order.


Lending support, NCP (SP) national spokesperson Clyde Crasto said arbitrary disenfranchisement of millions of people was against the fundamental right to vote of citizens.

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The BJP's "whataboutery" indicated an attempt to cover up the alleged wrongdoings of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Election Commission of India, Crasto further alleged.

"Justice Bhuyan's statement on the SIR issue upholds our Constitution and democracy. Any arbitrary disenfranchisement of voters violates their fundamental right to vote," Crasto told PTI.

Justice Bhuyan, who delivered the valedictory address at the 19th Justice Bodh Raj Sawhney Memorial Moot Court Competition at NALSAR University of Law, said the Indian Constitution does not provide for two classes of citizens -- one with voting rights and the other without voting rights.

He said that any process which leads to wholesale disenfranchisement of Indian citizens, making them citizens without voting rights, would be violative of Articles 326 and 14 of the Constitution of India.

Opposition parties and the Cockroach Janta Party, as well as civil society groups, have been protesting across the country seeking the resignation of CEC Gyanesh Kumar for alleged irregularities in the SIR process.

The ruling BJP and the ECI have, however, defended SIR saying the process was being carried out in adherence to all laws and constitutional norms.