Supreme Court Assures Maharashtra Voters Against Prosecution

The Supreme Court of India issued notices to the Government of India and the Election Commission of India (ECI) following a petition by Arun Anandagiri challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Maharashtra. The petition alleges that between 20 million and 30 million voters were arbitrarily deleted, with many residents in Mumbai and Pune wrongly marked as persons not found due to urban redevelopment projects.

Chief Justice Surya Kant provided a verbal assurance that deleted voters who use Form 6 to re-register will not face prosecution. This addresses concerns raised by former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi, who argued that using the form—designed for first-time voters—constitutes a criminal offense. While the court declined to halt the revision or extend the claims deadline immediately, it noted that an extension remains possible after hearing the respondents.

In a counter-affidavit filed on October 26, the ECI defended its process, asserting that all SIR orders were approved unanimously by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. The ECI dismissed the petition's reliance on newspaper reports as lacking legal evidence and denied amending the statutory Form 6. To prevent confusion, the ECI split the online application into two separate parts on October 21. The court has scheduled further hearings for October 27 and November 5, ahead of the final electoral roll publication on November 16.