‘Consider Aadhaar, Voter ID, Ration Card’: SC To ECI Over Bihar Voter Roll Revision, Next Hearing July 28
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to consider accepting Aadhaar card, Voter ID (EPIC), and ration card as valid documents during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. The top court said the voter-roll revision exercise goes to the “root of democracy and power to vote” and needs to be justified on multiple grounds.
According to a report by Bar and Bench, a bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi posed three key questions to the ECI: “We are prima facie of the opinion that there are three questions: 1. Powers of ECI to conduct, 2. The procedure to exercise the powers and 3. The timeline which is very short and due in November, and notification will come in advance.”
The bench said the matter would require a detailed hearing and listed it for July 28, directing that counter-affidavits be filed by July 21, and rejoinders before the next date.
Aadhaar not proof of citizenship, says ECI
As reported by Bar and Bench, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Election Commission, argued that Aadhaar cannot be treated as proof of citizenship. Referring to Article 326 of the Constitution, he said, “Every voter has to be an Indian citizen, and an Aadhaar card is not proof of citizenship.”
Justice Dhulia, however, observed, “If you are to check citizenship under SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, then you should have acted early; it is a bit late.”
Defending the EC’s authority, Dwivedi stated that the last intensive revision had taken place in 2003 and that the exercise was necessary for cleaning up the rolls. “With passage of time, electoral rolls need to be revised to look into the inclusion or exclusion of voter names, with the SIR being the one exercise to do it,” he said. “If the ECI did not have the power to revise the electoral roll, then who did?”
Add popular documents or give reasons for excluding: SC
The bench took note of the EC’s existing list of 11 documents for verification and said it was not exhaustive. “In our opinion, it would be in the interest of justice if Aadhaar cards, EPIC cards and ration cards should be included,” Justice Dhulia stated, while clarifying that the ECI would retain the discretion to accept or reject such documents. However, if the ECI chooses not to accept these documents, it must provide reasons, the bench directed, as per Bar and Bench.
The court also noted that the petitioners were not pressing for an interim stay on the EC’s SIR notification at this stage.
Over 10 petitions challenge Bihar voter roll revision; EC promises fair process
The Supreme Court was hearing a batch of over 10 petitions challenging the Election Commission’s 8 May notification initiating the special revision of electoral rolls in Bihar. As reported by Bar and Bench, the petitioners include the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), RJD MP Manoj Jha, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress MP K C Venugopal, NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule, CPI leader D Raja, Samajwadi Party’s Harinder Singh Malik, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Arvind Sawant, JMM’s Sarfraz Ahmed, and CPI (ML)’s Dipankar Bhattacharya.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing one of the petitioners, argued that such a revision should only be conducted under the Representation of People Act.
The ECI assured the top court that no voter would be excluded without being given an opportunity to be heard, and added that the SIR exercise would cover approximately 7.9 crore citizens in Bihar.
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