SC to hear on Nov 11 pleas challenging EC's decision to conduct pan-India SIR exercise
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on November 11 pleas challenging the Election Commission’s decision to conduct a pan-India Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said it will start hearing the pleas from November 11 onwards after advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for NGO, Association of Democratic Reforms, said the issue goes to the root of democracy.
The bench said though several important matters are listed from November 11 onwards, it would try to adjust the hearing of other matters to take up SIR matters.
Bhushan said urgency of the matter is because the SIR exercise has started in different states.
The top court is already hearing pleas challenging the validity of the poll panel’s decision to conduct the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar.
On October 16, the EC termed the Bihar SIR "accurate" and told the apex court that the petitioner political parties and NGOs are merely content with making "false allegations" to discredit the exercise.
The poll body also told the apex court that not a single appeal has been filed by any voter against name deletion since the publication of the final electoral roll.
It denied the allegation of the petitioners that there was a "disproportionate exclusion of Muslims" from the final electoral roll of the state prepared after the months-long SIR exercise.
On September 30, the EC, while publishing the final electoral list of the poll-bound Bihar, said the total number of electors has come down by nearly 47 lakh to 7.42 crore in the final electoral roll from 7.89 crore before SIR.
The final figure has, however, increased by 17.87 lakh from 7.24 crore electors named in the draft list issued on August 1, which had removed 65 lakh voters from the original list on various accounts, including deaths, migration and duplication of voters.
While 21.53 lakh new electors have been added to the draft list, 3.66 lakh names have been removed, resulting in a net increase of 17.87 lakh.
The first phase of elections in Bihar on 121 seats of the 243-member assembly got completed on Thursday, while the remaining 122 constituencies will go to polls on November 11. The counting of votes will be held on November 14.
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South African police arrest suspect in mass shooting that killed 12, including 3 children
Johannesburg (AP): A 32-year-old suspect has been arrested in connection with a mass shooting which claimed the lives of 12 people including three children at an unlicensed pub earlier this month, South African police said on Monday.
The man is suspected of being one of the three people who opened fire on patrons in a pub at Saulsville township, west of South Africa's capital Pretoria, killing 12 people including three children aged 3, 12 and 16.
At least 13 people were also injured during the attack, whose motive remains unknown.
According to the police, the suspect was arrested on Sunday while traveling to Botlokwa in Limpopo province, more than 340 km from where the mass shooting took place on Dec 6.
An unlicensed firearm believed to have been used during the attack was recovered from the suspect's vehicle.
“The 32-year-old suspect was intercepted by Limpopo Tracking Team on the R101 Road in Westenburg precinct. During the arrest, the team recovered an unlicensed firearm, a hand gun, believed to have been used in the commission of the multiple murders. The firearm will be taken to the Forensic Science Laboratory for ballistic analysis,” police said in statement.
The suspect was arrested on the same day that another mass shooting at a pub took place in the Bekkersdal township, west of Johannesburg, in which nine people were killed and 10 wounded when unknown gunmen opened fire on patrons.
Police have since launched a search for the suspects.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and recorded more than 26,000 homicides in 2024 — an average of more than 70 a day. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.
The country of 62 million people has relatively strict gun ownership laws, but many killings are committed with illegal guns, according to authorities.
According to police, mass shootings at unlicensed bars are becoming a serious problem. Police shut down more than 11,000 illegal taverns between April and September this year and arrested more than 18,000 people for involvement in illegal liquor sales.
