New Delhi, Aug 14: India’s Election Commission (ECI) told the Supreme Court on Thursday it has been drawn into increasingly fierce political battles, as allegations mount over its handling of electoral processes and a voter list revision exercise in Bihar.
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the ECI before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, said the commission had faced accusations over the use of electronic voting machines and claims that the special intensive revision (SIR) in Bihar amounted to “citizenship screening.”
“Today is a time of sharp political contest. The ECI is caught up in this sharp contest between political parties,” Dwivedi told the court. Justice Kant described the situation as one of “political hostility.”
Dwivedi traced India’s post-Independence political history, recalling the Congress party’s dominance under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the turbulence of the late 1960s, the Emergency period, and the tenure of former chief election commissioner T.N. Seshan, who he said made significant reforms but also “overstepped.”
He added that political parties had a “necessity to project certain things as realities in the public domain” and said the commission exercised restraint in such circumstances.
Addressing the Bihar SIR case, Dwivedi objected to petitioners portraying the state as regressive, calling it a “land of enlightenment.” Justice Kant, however, noted that poverty persisted among some sections of the state’s population.
