India, Dec. 2 -- The Election Commission has strongly defended in the Supreme Court its ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, saying that allegations of mass deletion of genuine voters are "highly exaggerated", "speculative," and politically motivated. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi on November 11 had sought separate responses from the poll panel on the pleas filed by the DMK, CPI(M), the West Bengal unit of the Congress and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders, challenging the SIR exercise in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, respectively.

Filing separate affidavits in the top court, Pawan Diwan, the Secretary of the Election Commission, sought dismissal...