THE Bombay High Court on Monday refused to pass any urgent interim order staying voter deletion in Maharashtra under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls undertaken by the Election Commission of India (ECI). A bench of Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Advait Sethna noted that matters pertaining to SIR are pending before the Supreme Court and hence it would not be proper for it to conduct any parallel proceedings or pass any orders. The court made the observations while hearing a petition filed by Sagar Ramesh Gawai, youth wing president of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, a political party founded by former MP Prakash Ambedkar. The petitioner has alleged procedural violations and arbitrary voter exclusions during the doorto-door enumeration phase under SIR in Maharashtra.

 

The plea demanded transparency and compliance with the provisions of the Representation of the People Act and opposed unilateral voter deletions. The High Court posted the matter for hearing after three weeks. Senior advocate Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, appearing for the ECI, informed the bench that the apex court is set to hear the proceedings before it on the issue of SIR (in Maharashtra and other states/UTs) on October 8. The HC then said it would be judicial impropriety to hear proceedings on the issue simultaneously. The petitioner’s advocate, Prakash Ambedkar, sought an interim order staying any further deletion of names from the electoral rolls.