NEW DELHI: Supreme Court asked the Election Commission on Thursday to provide information on how many voters have been deleted on the grounds of “suspected citizenship” in the SIR drive. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi noted that only three categories of deletion of voters have been furnished by EC – death, duplication and migration of voters. “We want the ground reality of the deletion process. Has there been any category of deletion on the ground of suspected citizenship,” the bench asked senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi who was appearing for the commission.Dwivedi told the bench that he will seek instruction and inform the court on the issue. He said EC can determine citizenship only to the extent of registration as a voter and cannot deport anyone or decide if a person has a visa to stay in India.Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, said while there was no dispute that citizenship is a prerequisite for voting, the core question was whether the poll panel has the authority to determine citizenship at all.
