The Supreme Court is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Election Commission of India’s June 24 directive for a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi is hearing the matter.
The petitioners have raised concerns that the SIR process permits arbitrary deletion of voters without adequate safeguards, potentially disenfranchising lakhs of citizens and undermining free and fair elections.
The Election Commission has defended its directive, asserting that it is empowered to undertake such an exercise under Article 324 of the Constitution and Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
It has maintained that the revision was required due to urban migration, shifts in the demographics, and long-standing concerns regarding the accuracy of the existing rolls, which had not been extensively revised in nearly two decades. The Commission has further submitted that the SIR is crucial to ensure that only eligible citizens are included in the electoral rolls ahead of the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections.
One of the issues that the Court is considering has been the list of documents that may be accepted by the Election Commission to verify the identity of voters to retain their names in the electoral list.
The Supreme Court had asked the Election Commission on July 10 to accept Aadhaar, the ration card, and the electoral photo identity card (EPIC) for this verification process. The Commission, however, later submitted an affidavit stating that neither Aadhaar cards nor ration cards can be treated as proof of eligibility to vote.
The petitioners have challenged the exclusion of these documents as absurd.
Organizations like the National Federation for Indian Women, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), and opposition leaders from a variety of states are among the petitioners. More recently, the ADR submitted an interim application requesting that the Court order the ECI to provide information regarding the 65 lakh names that were removed from a Bihar electoral roll that was published on August 1 as part of the SIR. The ECI responded by stating that there was no legal requirement for it to disclose such reasons for publish a separate list of excluded voters.
However, it also stated that no name will be removed from the draft electoral roll for Bihar without prior notice, a chance to be heard, and a reasoned order from the appropriate authority. On Tuesday, the Court orally observed that the inclusion and exclusion of citizens and non-citizens from the electoral rolls falls within the remit of the ECI. It also said that ECI was correct when it said that an Aadhaar card doesn't prove citizenship. During the hearing yesterday, the Court noted that the ECI's decision to accept more documents to verify an individual's identity in order to include them on the electoral rolls appeared to be favorable to voters.
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