SC asks EC to furnish details of 65 lakh deleted voters in Bihar draft electoral rolls

The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Election Commission to furnish by August 9 the details of around 65 lakh electors left out from the draft electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan and N Kotiswar Singh asked the counsel for the poll panel to furnish the details of deleted voters, the data which has been already shared with the political parties, and give a copy to the NGO, Association For Democratic Reforms.

The NGO, which has challenged the June 24 order of the Election Commission directing for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, filed a fresh application seeking direction to the poll panel to publish the names of around 65 lakh deleted voters with the mention whether they are dead, permanently migrated or not considered for any other reason.

The bench told advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, that the reason for deletion would come in subsequent time as it is now only a draft list.

However, Bhushan contended that some political parties have been given a list of deleted voters but they have not further clarified whether the said voter is dead or migrated.

The bench told the ECI's counsel, "We will see every voter likely to be affected and get the required information. You (ECI) file a reply by Saturday and let Mr Bhushan look at it and then we can see what is disclosed and what is not disclosed." Bhushan alleged that 75 percent of voters, who have filled the enumeration form have not furnished any supporting documents mentioned in the list of 11 documents and their names were included on the recommendation of Booth Level Officer (BLO) of the poll panel.

The bench said it is commencing hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the June 24 order of the poll panel on August 12 and the NGO can make these averments on that day.

Terming the Election Commission a constitutional authority deemed to act in accordance with law, the top court had said on July 29 that it will step in immediately if there is "mass exclusion" in the SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar.

It had fixed a timeline for considering a batch of pleas challenging the Election Commission's SIR exercise in Bihar and said the hearing on the issue will be held on August 12 and 13.

Earlier, observing there should be "en masse inclusion" instead of "en masse exclusion” in the ongoing SIR exercise of voters' list in poll-bound Bihar, the top court asked the Election Commission to continue accepting Aadhaar and voter ID documents.

Underscoring the "presumption of genuineness" of the two documents, the top court also refused to stay the publication of the draft electoral roll in Bihar.

The draft roll was published on August 1 and the final roll on September 30 amid opposition claims that the ongoing exercise will deprive crores of eligible citizens from their right to vote.

On August 1, the poll panel came out with the much-anticipated 'draft electoral rolls' in Bihar, enlisting 7.24 crore voters but knocking off more than 65 lakh names, claiming that most of the persons concerned had died or migrated.

The draft electoral rolls, prepared as part of the SIR, which has caused much controversy as the exercise was ordered with just a few months left for assembly polls, are available for voters online.

The EC has said it was making available printed copies, district-wise, to representatives of political parties so that anomalies, if any, could be flagged during the 'claims and objections' phase, which would continue till September 1 before the 'final rolls' are published.

The reasons cited by the EC for non-inclusion of previously registered voters in the draft rolls included death (22.34 lakh), "permanently shifted/absent" (36.28 lakh) and "already enrolled (at more than one places)" (7.01 lakh).

The EC affidavit in the top court has justified its ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, saying it adds to the purity of the election by "weeding out ineligible persons" from the electoral rolls.