Your legal questions answered by Justice K Chandru, former Judge of the Madras High Court Do you have a question? Email us at _citizen.dtnext@dt.co.in
Until single identity card is introduced, we must bear with multi-card system
I request your guidance on the legal procedure for removing the names of deceased individuals from the electoral rolls. The local body and the taluk office issue death certificates based on the medical certificate provided by a doctor. I would like to know whether these authorities are legally permitted to submit Form 7 daily to the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) using these death certificates, so that the names of deceased persons can be promptly deleted from the electoral rolls. Could you please clarify the legal provisions that govern or regulate this process?
--P Viswanathan, Thirumurugan Salai, Chitlapakkam, Chennai
The state authorities maintain birth and death registers, and they have no connection with election-related work. Similarly, the ECI has not evolved any procedure to link birth and death registration for updating the electoral rolls. In fact, there is growing demand as to why ECI can't link Aadhaar cards with the voter list. The stand of ECI is that it can't be accepted as identity proof until the Supreme Court tells them to do so. We have a long way to go to have a single identity card system which can be multipurpose. Until such a system evolves, we will have to keep showing different cards to different authorities without losing track of any one of them.
Apex court to examine inordinate delay in granting assent to Bills case-by-case
With the Supreme Court now saying it cannot use Article 142 to treat State Bills as 'passed', Tamil Nadu's 10 Bills are stuck again, and the decision is back with Governor RN Ravi. The court has also said Governors aren't bound by timelines or by the State Cabinet's advice when dealing with Bills. What does this really mean for Tamil Nadu's case, especially since an earlier ruling had called the Governor's delay 'illegal' and 'arbitrary'? Does this clarification give Governors more power in other states, too? And how could all this affect the Centre-State relations and Tamil Nadu's politics before the election?
-- R Nagarathinam, Vyasarpadi
Though Article 142 empowers the Supreme Court to render full and effective justice to the parties before it, it is not a magic wand. Many times, the Supreme Court has ruled by exercising that power, it cannot rewrite a definite legal provision. Article 200 only requires the Governor to give assent to a Bill passed by the Assembly 'as soon as possible'. By ruling that it should be done within months, otherwise it would result in deemed assent, it is introducing a new provision into the Constitution. However, instead of an omnibus relief, the Supreme Court said that, on a case-by-case basis, the court will examine the inordinate delay in the grant of assent to Bills.