Supreme Court Upholds Validity of Special Intensive Review Process Regarding Citizenship

Maintaining the validity of the Special Intensive Review (SIR) process, the Supreme Court stated on Wednesday that removing names from the voter list does not determine citizenship. The bench, led by Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, clarified that the investigations conducted under the SIR process are not related to citizenship determination and are solely focused on electoral participation. This ruling is significant as petitioners and opposition parties had argued that the SIR exercise, managed by the Election Commission, was essentially a covert method of verifying citizenship.

Addressing the broader question of whether the Election Commission can determine citizenship, the Supreme Court imposed a crucial condition. The court indicated that while the Election Commission can investigate, it is limited to the context of including or excluding individuals from the voter list. The Supreme Court emphasized that the removal of a name does not imply that the individual is no longer a citizen of India. This process is unrelated to citizenship determination. In essence, the removal of a name from the voter list under the SIR process does not lead to the loss of citizenship. The court also clearly defined the powers of the electoral body. The Chief Justice stated that the Election Commission has the authority to conduct meaningful inquiries related to citizenship solely for the purpose of ensuring eligibility for inclusion in the voter list. Such inquiries will not be considered as citizenship determinations.

This ruling comes in response to multiple petitions challenging the validity of the SIR process. Under this procedure, voters whose names were absent from the 2002/2003 voter list were required to establish their ancestral connection to someone listed. The controversy began when the Election Commission initiated the SIR process in Bihar last June and subsequently expanded it to several states, including West Bengal, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. Currently, the third and final phase of the SIR is underway in 16 states and three union territories. The Election Commission has deemed this process essential for cleaning up the voter list and verifying citizenship claims. However, petitioners contended that determining citizenship through the SIR process falls outside the jurisdiction of the electoral body.