By Admin 
Petitioner RJD MP Manoj Jha has raised questions on the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) regarding the voter list. He has said that this process is inappropriate in practice. He said that for this the voter will have to provide his birth certificate or any such document which proves that one of his parents is an Indian. He said that if a voter’s father did not vote in the 2003 elections and died before that, then how would citizenship be proved.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appeared on behalf of petitioner Manoj Jha before the bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi. While presenting his point of view, he also raised questions on the scope of powers of Booth Level Officers (BLO). He asked, ‘Can the BLO decide whether a person is mentally challenged or not and can he decide whether a voter is an Indian citizen or not?’
According to the report of Live Law, Kapil Sibal said that it does not come under the jurisdiction of BLOs to decide whether a voter is an Indian citizen or not, because the BLOs who have been appointed are only school teachers. Kapil Sibal said, ‘Deploying a school teacher as a BLO to determine citizenship is, substantively and procedurally, a dangerous and unfair proposal.’
Kapil Sibal said that the rules being implemented are similar to the rules of the Foreigners (Citizens) Act, where the onus is on the person to prove that he is not a foreigner. Giving an example, he said, ‘The enumerator will ask the voter, tell me when was your father born? Give me proof of this… How will I be able to prove this?
He said, ‘How will I fulfill this responsibility when my father did not vote as per the 2003 voter list or he died before that?’ Chief Justice Surya Kant said on this, ‘But if your father’s name is not in the list and you also did not work on it… then perhaps you missed it…’ The court will now hear the matter on December 2.