New Delhi: On Friday, the Supreme Court requested responses from the West Bengal government and the Election Commission regarding a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that claims the state government is denying social welfare benefits, including ration, to individuals whose names were removed from the voter list due to doubtful citizenship status during a special intensive revision (SIR).
The PIL was filed by Prasenjit Bose, chairperson of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee and convenor of the Joint Forum against NRC. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana noted that while the Election Commission has the constitutional authority to remove a person's name from the voter list if their citizenship was doubtful, but it does not have the power to determine citizenship status.
The bench emphasized, "EC cannot determine whether a person is a citizen of India or not. While dealing with SIR in Bihar and West Bengal, we had repeatedly said that EC is not the authority to decide a person's citizenship status."
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