SC advances hearing on Delhi SIR plea to Oct 28

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday advanced the date of hearing in Delhi SIR matter, after it was alleged that voters, whose names have been deleted pursuant to the SIR exercise, are being asked to fill Form 6 for re-inclusion of their names on the electoral roll. A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi advanced the hearing date from October 30 to October 28, on hearing Advocate Prashant Bhushan. When Bhushan urged that a hearing on October 28 might not make much of a difference as October 30 is the last date for correction of deletions, the CJI said, "we are thinking of passing an order that will take care of (all this)". Bhushan was mentioning the application filed by transparency activists Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri in the pending petition against Delhi SIR.

"They are asking people to fill up Form 6. But Form 6 has a declaration that they have never voted before. If they give false declaration, they are liable to imprisonment. We are seeking direction that ECI allow them to fill up Form 8, which is for shifted voters, or create some other Form", he submitted. He prayed that the matter be listed on Friday.

Ultimately, the bench posted the main matter on October 28.

The main petition alleges failure on the part of the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer to adequately disclose the names of voters issued notices and the specific reasons for issuing them.

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