Former election commissioner Ashok Lavasa has called the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls an unfair exercise being imposed on millions of people.He said while the judiciary had validated the exercise and the government had termed it legal, the question was whether it was fair.“Of course, it is legal. But is it fair? That is the question, because that is what justice is all about,” Lavasa said while delivering the Jagdeep Singh Chhokar Memorial Lecture organised by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) here on September 3.Lavasa said, “Statutory institutions, constitutional bodies and governments increasingly appear to be functioning on the principle that whatever they do is right simply because it is legally permissible.”He described the SIR exercise as an unfair procedure imposed on millions of citizens and said “might is right” was an outdated concept. Institutions entrusted with the mandate of law must also uphold its spirit, he observed.Justice, he said, was not merely about enforcing the letter of the law, but also protecting its spirit.Lavasa said that while the authorities may argue that everything being done under the SIR was legal, it was “definitely not fair”.He questioned the rationale behind the deletion of 13 crore names from electoral rolls and asked whether adequate efforts were being made to ensure that the exercise did not alienate voters.Pointing to the growing anxiety surrounding the revision, Lavasa said that 33 per cent of people do not vote, and such large-scale changes could further “disenchant” citizens with the democratic process.