Chennai: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday, October 24, informed the Madras High Court that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the Tamil Nadu electoral rolls will commence within a week.
The assurance came during the hearing of a petition filed by former AIADMK MLA B Sathyanarayanan, who sought a transparent re-verification of 229 polling booths in the T Nagar constituency.
ECI Submits Timeline to Court
The submission was made before the bench comprising Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan. Appearing for the ECI, Standing Counsel Niranjan Rajagopal said that the upcoming revision would effectively address the petitioner’s concerns, as per a report by Live Law. Taking note of the submission, the court adjourned the case for a week.
Sathyanarayanan, who had contested the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections from T. Nagar, alleged large-scale discrepancies in the electoral rolls. He claimed that his defeat by a margin of 137 votes was the result of mass deletions of genuine voters. The petitioner contended that the State Election Commission had a constitutional obligation to carry out a demographic audit of voter lists against census data to ensure fairness and accuracy.
Allegations of Negligence and Electoral Irregularities
In his petition, Sathyanarayanan stated that he had personally verified 100 of the 229 polling booths and found duplicate entries, inclusion of non-resident and deceased voters, and other inconsistencies. Despite submitting his findings to the Election Commission, he alleged that no verification or corrective action had been undertaken.
He further claimed that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) had prepared reports without conducting actual field visits, calling it a serious dereliction of duty. According to him, such lapses undermine the integrity of the electoral process and violate the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the right to vote under Article 326 of the Constitution.
The petitioner argued that the Election Commission’s inaction not only allows electoral malpractice to continue but also weakens public confidence in the democratic process. He has urged the court to direct the ECI to undertake a full-scale re-verification to correct wrongful inclusions and deletions in the T Nagar voter list.
