The Supreme Court has clarified that deletion of a person’s name from the voter list does not amount to loss of citizenship. The court said the two issues are not automatically connected.
The observation came during a hearing on a public interest petition filed amid the ongoing third phase of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across the country. The petition alleged that “suspected voters” were being removed during SIR and that this was leading to denial of government welfare benefits.
The court noted that the Election Commission has constitutional authority to delete a name from the electoral roll if a person’s citizenship is in doubt. However, it underlined that the Election Commission cannot determine whether a person is an Indian citizen.
The bench also recalled that in earlier matters related to SIR in Bihar and West Bengal, it had repeatedly clarified that the Election Commission does not have the power to decide citizenship.
