New Delhi: The Supreme Court on July 29 posted for hearing a batch of pleas challenging the Election Commission of India’s move to conduct Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar. The pleas are listed for August 12 and 13.
On petitioners’ apprehension that 65 lakh voters are going to be excluded from the draft list to be published by the Election Commission of India in the SIR process on August 1, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said that if there is any mass exclusion of voters, then the court will step in.
“We are overviewing the thing as a judicial authority. If there is mass exclusion, we will immediately step in,” said the bench.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the Association for Democratic Reforms, told the apex court about the poll panel’s statement that 65 lakh persons have not submitted the enumeration forms during the SIR process, as they are either dead or have permanently shifted elsewhere.
Bhushan said these persons will have to apply afresh for inclusion in the list. The bench said, “We are here; we will hear you.”
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the ECI, said that the procedure allows the filing of objections to the draft list.
On Monday, the top court again asked ECI to consider including the Aadhaar card and electoral photo identity card as admissible documents to prove the identity of voters during the SIR of electoral rolls being undertaken in Bihar. It had also refused to stop the Election Commission from publishing the draft electoral rolls for Bihar on August 1 as per the schedule.
Earlier, the bench had allowed the Election Commission to continue with its exercise of conducting a SIR of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
ECI had said that Aadhaar is not proof of citizenship or domicile, and once all the application forms have come, then the stage of objection and claims will begin. The poll panel had said if someone objects that this person is not who he claims to be, then Aadhaar can be used.
The petitions challenging the ECI decision were filed by Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Jha, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), PUCL, activist Yogendra Yadav, Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra, and former Bihar MLA Mujahid Alam.
(With inputs from ANI)
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