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Jammu and Kashmir National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah on Monday welcomed the Supreme Court's decision to issue notice to the Election Commission and other respondents on pleas challenging decisions allegedly taken unilaterally by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in connection with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Reacting to the development, Abdullah said he was pleased that the Supreme Court had taken cognisance of the matter and expressed hope that the court would examine the allegations and take note of the alleged mistakes. He said, "I am really happy that Supreme Court has taken notice of this. We hope that it will look into this and take note of the mistakes he has made." On West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari's announcement regarding implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) within six months and plans for laws against what he termed "love jihad", Abdullah responded by saying that the government would take several measures, while referring to the uncertainty of future developments. He stated, "They are going to do a lot of things. But they will not even realise what the God is going to do.' His remarks came after a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana refused to pass an ex-parte interim order seeking suspension of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. The court issued notices to the Centre, ECI, Kumar, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi and other officials. The court said it first wanted authenticated information on the allegations and observed that any decision found to have violated the statutory framework could be annulled. On Form 6, CJI Surya Kant said, Any modified Form 6 has not been approved by us. Let's be clear. When the record is produced, we would like to see who has modified. The petition before the Supreme Court has alleged that 14 crucial SIR-related decisions were taken in the name of the ECI despite objections recorded by the two other Election Commissioners. The matter also involves allegations concerning changes to electoral-roll systems, Form 6, access to ERONet/ECINet and appeals filed before West Bengal Appellate Tribunals. The Supreme Court has maintained that it would examine the allegations after receiving authenticated records and responses from the concerned authorities. (ANI)
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