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New Delhi: Election Commission Tuesday told Supreme Court that the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act empowered and enabled EC to devise a distinct procedure for special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and accused petitioner NGO, which has challenged the validity of the exercise, of having a track record of attempting to discredit the commission, reports Dhananjay Mahapatra.Appearing for EC, senior advocate Maninder Singh told a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi that the commission had legislative mandate which laid down that while conducting “any special revision (of rolls) under Section 21(3) of RP Act, 1950, it shall be entitled to lay down procedure ‘as it thinks fit’.”He said the phrase ‘as it thinks fit’, though subject to principles of non-arbitrariness and reasonableness, was described by SC to be a phrase of wide amplitude, which ought not be circumscribed.
