'Don't undermine power of court': SC says no interim stay on Bihar voter revision, asks EC to accept Aadhaar
While passing the order, the SC said it would once for all decide the pleas against the Election Commission of India's (ECI) special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls.
The bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said they would on July 29 fix the schedule for conducting a final hearing on the matter.
Appearing for NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan submitted before court that the electoral rolls should not be finalised in the interim, and asked for a stay on publishing them on August 1.
The bench observed that the last order passed by the top court noted the petitioners not pressing for interim stay. Replying to this, Sankaranarayanan said the interim relief of stay was not pressed because of SC's assurance that the matter would be listed for hearing before August 1.
However, the bench said that the stay could not be granted now and the pleas would be decided once for all.
'Don't undermine the power of the court. Trust us,' the bench said, adding that if court was in agreement with the submissions and if any illegality was found, everything would be quashed 'there and then'.
SC asks EC to continue accepting Aadhaar, voter cards
Meanwhile, the SC also asked the EC to continue accepting Aadhaar cards and voter IDs for the SIR in Bihar and comply with its order stating that these documents had a 'presumption of genuineness'.
The top court reiterated the July 10 order by a bench headed by Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, which had asked the poll body to consider Aadhaar, voter and ration cards as valid documents.
'As far as ration cards are concerned we can say they can be forged easily but Aadhaar and voter cards have some sanctity and have presumption of genuineness,' the bench said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Indian Express
30 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
SC quashes FIR against Telugu actor Mohan Babu and his son in 2019 student protest case
In a major relief to Telugu actor-producer Mohan Babu and his son Vishnu Manchu, the Supreme Court on Thursday quashed a criminal case registered against them in a 2019 student protest in Tirupati over fee reimbursement. 'A reading of the FIR (First Information Report) and the charge-sheet neither discloses any act committed or illegal commission that caused common injury, danger, annoyance to the public or any section of the public or interference with their public rights, nor do they disclose any voluntary obstruction to a person that prevents them from proceeding in any direction that they have a right to proceed in," said the two-judge bench of the top court, headed by Justice BV Nagarathna and including Justice KV Viswanathan, in their verdict. The SC quashed the FIR against the father-son duo after finding that the offences invoked against the accused were not made out in the case. "The appellants (Babu and Vishnu) were exercising their right to freedom of speech and expression and to assemble peacefully," the court said. As per the prosecution case, ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh in 2019, Babu and his son along with others had held a rally along the Tirupati-Madanapalli road and raised slogans against the state government for not granting student fee reimbursements. They were booked on a complaint made by the person in charge of the Model Code of Conduct Team-IV, Chandragiri assembly constituency. In January this year, the Andhra Pradesh High Court refused to quash the proceedings in the case, forcing the father-son duo to knock the doors of the top court seeking relief in the case.
Time of India
33 minutes ago
- Time of India
Election Commission finalises electoral college list ahead of upcoming vice-presidential election
Representative image NEW DELHI: Moving closer to announcing the schedule for the election to the office of vice-president of India, the Election Commission on Friday said it has finalised the electoral college list. The list, which, as per the law, must include all elected members of the Lok Sabha and elected and nominated members of the Rajya Sabha, unless the election of any member has been set aside by the high court in an election petition and who is disallowed to participate or vote in House proceedings, has these members listed in a continuous serial order, arranged alphabetically based on the state/Union Territory of their respective Houses. The electoral college list will be available for purchase at a counter set up in EC's Nirvachan Sadan headquarters, from the date of notification, which is likely to be announced soon. Even before EC — mandated by Article 324 to conduct the vice-presidential poll, following the home ministry's notification of Jagdeep Dhankhar's resignation in the gazette — announces the poll schedule, it must complete the pre-announcement activities like preparation of the electoral college, finalisation of the returning officer (RO) and assistant returning officer (ARO), and preparation and dissemination of background material on all the past vice-presidential elections. EC had earlier appointed the RO and ARO for the 2025 vice-presidential election, necessitated by the resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar on July 22.
Time of India
39 minutes ago
- Time of India
'Over 30 hours already lost': RS deputy chairman Harivansh laments repeated adjournments
New Delhi, Jul 24 (ANI): Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh conducts the proceedings of the house during the Monsoon Session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Thursday. (Sansad TV/ANI Video Grab) NEW DELHI: As Opposition parties continued to disrupt proceedings in the Rajya Sabha to press for a discussion on the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh reminded them that the issue was already being adjudicated by the court, while also flagging the loss of over 30 hours of members' time in the current session to the repeated adjournments. Stating that the members have had an opportunity to raise 120 starred questions, 120 zero hour submissions and 120 special mentions since the start of monsoon session, Harivansh lamented that barely 11 starred questions, 3 zero hour submissions and 17 special mentions have been taken up. 'Total time lost was 30 hours and 6 minutes. This time belongs to members and (is) not the government's business time. The mandate given by the people has not been fulfilled. It is high time for us to introspect,' he said, addressing his opposition benches. Citing the resolution unanimously adopted by the Rajya Sabha on September 1, 1997, stating that 'the prestige of Parliament be preserved and enhanced, also by conscious and dignified conformity to the entire regime of rules of procedure and conduct of business of the Houses and directions of the presiding officers relating to orderly conduct of business,' Harivansh said the opposition members need to introspect on their conduct in light of the resolution. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Experts Tested 17 Hearing Aids. Their #1 Pick Will Shock You Undo The deputy chairman went on to reject the 28 notices received under Rule 267 — on issues relating to SIR exercise in Bihar, 25% tariff announced by US on Indian goods, etc — saying they did not conform to the detailed directives imparted by the Chair on 08.12.2022 and 19.12.2022. DMK's Tiruchi Siva, Congress's Pramod Tiwari and CPM's John Brittas tried to insist on govt indicating the day and time for a discussion on SIR, but the Chair dismissed this saying the court is already adjudicating the issue. He further added that EC being a constitutional body, 'there are provisions for discussions relating to it'. As members continued to protest the rejection of their notices under 267, the deputy chairman adjourned the House till 12 noon.
