New Delhi, Jan. 22 -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) if it has "untrammelled" power to conduct special intensive revision (SIR), while observing that the same must be subject to guidelines and procedures, including transparency and principles of natural justice. A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi said, "If we hold that the ECI has jurisdiction to conduct SIR, can we say it will be untrammelled," as it heard submissions by the poll panel that section 21(3) of Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 (ROPA), which provides for SIR, gives it "widest" discretion about the manner and extent of conducting an intensive revision of rolls. Responding to ECI's arguments advanced by senior advocates Rakesh Dwivedi and Maninder Singh, the bench said, "No doubt ECI has widest discretion under Section 21(3). But when you exercise that power, there has to be a procedure. Intensive revision has to have guidelines, and that should be in conformity with principles of natural justice and transparency." The court pointed out that this is a crucial question to be examined in a batch of petitions challenging the SIR where the entire procedure followed by ECI is in question. The bench said, "Why this question is essential is that when you say Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 will not apply to this exercise, we must note that Rule 13 of these Rules allows presentation of six documents. Your SIR order provides 11 documents. Can you increase or eliminate documents? Can you say we will not look into these 6 documents?" The observations by the court have come at a time when the ECI is presenting arguments to dispel the picture presented by petitioners in claiming that the 11 documents insisted by them failed to include Aadhaar Card or Voter I-card, which was deliberately done to exclude voters. It was on the court's nudge that the ECI later agreed to accept new voter registration forms based on Aadhaar as an identity document....