ASDDO cases provide fresh grounds to challenge SIR, says Prashant Bhushan

Calling for a fresh legal challenge to Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Karnataka, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan on Sunday urged voters marked as shifted or absent under the ASDDO (Absent, Shifted, Duplicate, Dead and Others) category, as well as those denied enumeration forms, to approach the courts, saying these cases provided fresh grounds to challenge the exercise.

Addressing an interaction organised by civil society groups, Mr. Bhushan described the use of the ASDDO category to mark voters as absent or shifted as a “systematic failure” of the revision process.

“If a person who has shifted residence is not given an enumeration form despite approaching the registration office, they should file an affidavit and move the court,” he said, adding that affected voters should not wait for the process to conclude before seeking legal remedies.

Referring to the requirement of mapping voters to the 2002 electoral roll, Mr. Bhushan said existing electoral rolls already contained the necessary information and that, if there were doubts about a voter’s eligibility, authorities could issue individual notices and conduct hearings instead of treating all voters as “suspect”.

He added that issues affecting individual voters could be pursued through individual petitions, while cases involving a larger group of similarly affected voters could be challenged collectively.