Bihar SIR: SC asks EC to publish names of 65 lakh omitted from voter list; says Aadhaar acceptable as ID

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Election Commission to publish details of 65 lakh voters removed from the electoral rolls after the special intensive revision in poll-bound Bihar .

"Transparency is needed about 65 lakh deleted voters to enable people to seek clarification or correction," a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymala Bagchi said.

What the SC said

• The top court asked the poll body to display printed booth-wise lists of deleted voters, along with reasons for their deletion, at panchayat and block development offices.
• District-wise deletion lists must be made available at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer.
• The top court also dir ec ted EC to upload the data on it's official website by Tuesday.
• The soft copies of deleted voters list, which will be uploaded in district electoral officer website, would be searchable.
• The bench also directed the poll body to publicise the deletions and reasons through newspapers, radio, and television.
• The top court also directed the poll body to accept Aadhaar card as an acceptable document for establishing identity
• "Your list of 11 documents seems citizen-friendly, but Aadhaar and EPIC are readily available...your notice can say that those who have not submitted so far, they can submit their Aadhaar and EPIC also," Justice Bagchi said.

On July 29, the top court warned it would step in immediately if there was “mass exclusion” of voters. The draft roll was published on August 1, with the final version due on September 30. Opposition parties claim the process could disenfranchise crores of eligible voters.

As the row over the SIR escalated, the bench said the EC had the residual power to conduct such an exercise as it deemed fit.

The bench also disagreed with a submission by a petitioner that the SIR of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar had no basis in law and ought to be quashed.

The pleas have been jointly filed by leaders from RJD, Trinamool Congress, Congress, NCP (Sharad Pawar), CPI, SP, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), JMM, CPI (ML), along with PUCL, ADR and activist Yogendra Yadav, challenging the EC’s June 24 decision.