SC refuses to interfere with ECI's decision to keep 2002 as base year for SIR in Sikkim

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with the Election Commission of India's decision to fix 2002 as the base year for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Sikkim.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana dismissed a PIL filed by ‘Sikkimese Mulniwasi Surakacha Sangh’, an NGO, seeking a direction to the poll panel to consider 1993 as the base year instead of 2002 for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state.

The bench said, “The goal post cannot be shifted in the middle of the exercise. 2002 has been kept as the base year for the entire country. We will not interfere with the decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI).”

The NGO contended that electorate data added in 2002 do not match with the demographic data of Sikkim and considering 2002 as the base year would lead to further anomalies.

The bench, however, did not agree with the petitioner, and said that voters enrolled in the electoral roll of 2002 have exercised their franchise in the subsequent polls held in the state.

It said that for the ongoing SIR exercise, the ECI has uniformly kept 2002 as the base year for all states because the last SIR was then.

The bench said the petitioner can approach the ECI for creating a reasonable exemption for Sikkim.

CJI Kant observed that no aggrieved person has approached the court except for the NGO and told the petitioner's counsel that asking the court to interfere on this organisation's behest with the ECI’s decision will be a dangerous proposition.

Justice Bagchi said that every border state has the problem of migration and faces the issue of demographic changes.

The bench said no ground was made out to interfere with the ECI’s decision to fix 2002 as the base year, and dismissed the petition.