Bihar SIR: Supreme Court directs the Election Commission to publish list of names of deleted from electoral rolls along with reasons for exclusion

The Supreme Court on Thursday (14th August) directed the Election Commission of India to publish the list of the 65 lakh names removed from the draft electoral roll during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar. The apex court directed the ECI to publish district-wise list of the removed names on the websites of the District Electoral Officers.

The court also instructed the ECI to specifically state the reasons for the deletion of the names, such as death, migration, double-registration and so on. It added that the list should also be displayed on the website of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Bihar, and that the documents should be searchable through the EPIC numbers.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi gave the directions during the hearing of a batch of petitions challenging the Bihar SIR. The court said that the publication of the list will enhance the confidence of the voters in the Commission. “If you bring in the public domain, the narrative (against the ECI) disappears,” Justice Kant said.

“We are not being critical of your not doing something…transparency will help create voter confidence. Why don’t you take an additional step of putting it up on the website, clearly identifying persons who are not there, with reasons, so that they can take remedial measures?” Justice Bagchi questioned.

The judges also instructed the Election Commission to publish public notices and mention therein, in simple “layman-friendly” language, the names of the persons who have been excluded from the voter list and also specifically note that such persons can produce their Aadhaar cards at the time of submitting their claims for inclusion in the voter list. The Court asked the Commission to publicise through social media, newspapers, and electronic media that the list will be published on the websites of the District Electoral Officers and the CEO of Bihar. The Commission has been given the deadline of next Tuesday (20th August) to implement the directions of the court. The next date of the hearing has been set for 22nd August.

Although the Court earlier agreed with the Election Commission that the Aadhaar Card is not conclusive proof of citizenship, it asked the Commission to include it in the list of necessary documents for inclusion in the voter list.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), one of the petitioners, had filed an application on 6th August seeking the publication of the names of omitted voters with reasons. In its response to the application, the Election Commission apprised the court that it was not bound by the law to publish the list and assured that no names would be excluded without prior notice.

Petitions filed challenging the Bihar SIR, calling to a conspiracy to remove voters

A batch of petitions were filed before the Supreme Court by several opposition leaders like TMC MP Mahua Moitra, former AAP co-founder Yogendra Yadav, RJD MP Manoj Jha and organisations such as People’s Union for Civil Liberties, and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) challenging the June 24 notification of the Election Commission regarding the conduct of the SIR in Bihar, which goes to the polls later this year. The petitioners are being represented before the Court of senior advocates, including Kapil Sibal, Prashant Bhushan, and Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

The petitioners urged the top court to put a stay on the SIR, alleging that it was a conspiracy to disenfranchise a large number of voters. However, the apex court rejected their argument and refused to put a stay on the SIR exercise, acknowledging that it was a routine exercise to update the electoral rolls by removing bogus voters and that the ECI was constitutionally empowered to do that. The court termed the petitioners’ allegations of mass disenfranchisement as a case of ” trust deficiency”.

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