Bihar SIR SC Verdict: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Election Commission to allow deleted voters to challenge their exclusion from the Bihar electoral roll during the SIR by using an Aadhaar card as proof of address. 

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi also asked the EC to allow excluded voters to submit claims through online mode besides making physical submissions using Aadhaar card number and any one of the 11 acceptable documents in the SIR.

The top court also expressed "surprise" over the inaction of political parties in not coming forward to file objections related to 65 lakh excluded voters and asked them to issue specific directions to party workers to assist people in filing and submitting the requisite forms with any 11 documents in Form 6 or Aadhaar Card.

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"All the political parties shall file the status report by the next date of hearing on the claim form they had facilitated in filing by excluded voters," the bench said as it posted the matter for September 8. 

The bench directed the election officials to furnish an acknowledgement receipt to the booth-level agents of the political parties, who submit the claim forms of excluded voters physically. Refusing to alter the timeline of the Bihar SIR, the top court said that the EC can extend the deadlines only if there are overwhelming applications for re-inclusion in the voter list.

Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the poll panel, urged the court to give the ECI a 15-day window to show there was no exclusion. "The political parties are making hue and cry and things are not bad. Repose faith in us and give us some more time. We will be able to show you there are no exclusions," Dwivedi said.

The ECI informed the bench that around 85,000 individual voters who were excluded from the draft rolls had submitted their claim forms, and over 2 lakh new voters had come forward to register their names in the electoral rolls under the SIR exercise in the state.

On August 14, the top court directed the poll panel to publish by August 19 details of the 65 lakh voters excluded from the draft electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar to enhance "transparency" in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters' list and allow Aadhaar as an acceptable document for identity proof.

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Observing that the EC should put at rest the "narrative being built" against it, the bench had also ordered that the details should include reasons for their non-inclusion during the ongoing SIR exercise. "Transparency will create voter confidence."

The revision of the voters' list in Bihar -- the first since 2003 -- has sparked a huge political row. The SIR's findings have reduced the total number of 7.9 crore registered voters in Bihar, from before the exercise, to 7.24 crore.

 

(With PTI Inputs)