The Supreme Court on Friday clarified that removal from electoral roll didn’t mean loss of citizenship as it agreed to examine the exclusion from welfare schemes of persons deleted from the list during Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal.The SIR is currently underway in several parts of the country, including Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant reiterated that deletion from the electoral roll after SIR exercise would not automatically result in the loss of citizenship status.The Bench – which also included Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana — pointed out that it had made it clear in the Bihar SIR judgment that the ultimate authority to determine citizenship was not the Election Commission and that the removal from electoral rolls cannot, by itself, result in the deprivation of citizenship. “Our judgment (in the Bihar SIR case) is clear. The EC is not a constitutional authority with regard to (citizenship) status under Articles 9, 10 and 11… The EC has control over electoral rolls. It can decide not to include someone. However, that does not result in loss of status of citizenship per se,” Justice Bagchi said.The Bench said, “We made it clear that EC has a corresponding duty that as soon as there is a decision (to exclude someone from electoral rolls), it (EC) has to refer to the Ministry (of Home) for adjudication under Citizenship Act. Unless that is done, status (as a citizen) must go on.”The clarification came after senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan submitted on behalf of Prasenjit Bose, chairperson of the SIR Committee of West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee, that 34 lakh appeals were still pending before the 19 appellate tribunals. Only around 38,000 appeals had been decided and 70 per cent of those were allowed, he said.While most of the appeals were pending, the West Bengal Government has issued notifications excluding deleted voters from benefits under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and various welfare measures such as Annapurna Yojana, Sankaranarayanan submitted. “Even caste certificates are being denied to the excluded persons,” he added.The petition sought Assembly constituency-wise data relating to the West Bengal Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, including the number of Forms 6 and 7 filed, admitted and rejected as well as details regarding the pendency and disposal of appeals before the appellate tribunals.Asking the Election Commission, the West Bengal Government and the Chief Electoral Officer of the state to spell out their respective stand on Bose’s petition, the Bench posted the matter for further hearing on August 25.The SIR exercise in West Bengal resulted in the exclusion of over 58 lakh electors during the enumeration phase. While 9.64 lakh applications for inclusion (Forms 6 and 6A) and over 99,000 applications for deletion (Form 7) were received during the claims and objections phase, only around 1.82 lakh additions were ultimately reflected in the final electoral roll published on February 28.