- By Chetna Shree
- Thu, 16 Oct 2025 06:50 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Bihar: With just one day remaining to file nominations for the first phase of the Bihar Assembly elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday levelled serious allegations against the anti-SIR petitioners in the Supreme Court.
In an affidavit, the EC accused anti-SIR petitioners, including NGOs like Prashant Bhushan’s Association for Democratic Reforms and opposition parties, of adopting a "communal approach”, which must be "deprecated".
The poll body refuted the petitioners' claims of disproportionate exclusion of Muslims, stating “Electoral rolls database does not capture any information on religion of any elector.”
In an affidavit, the ECI stated, “Petitioners have sought to allege that there is disproportionate exclusion of Muslims (25% amongst 65 lakh excluded voters from the Draft Electoral Roll, and 34% amongst 3.66 lakh electors finally deleted). This is based on some software for name recognition, whose authenticity, accuracy or appropriateness cannot be commented upon.”
“This communal approach is to be deprecated. Electoral Rolls database does not capture any information on religion of any elector. Moreover, it is incorrect because the 65 lakh individuals not included in the Draft Electoral Roll had been segregatedly published on the website of CEO/DEO as per this Court's Order, and most of those not included did not file objections or correction applications. These 65 lakh individuals were not included as they did not submit Enumeration Forms being dead, having permanently shifted or having entries in more than one constituency,” the affidavit added.
The Supreme Court, on October 9, noted a key challenge that has arisen during the proceedings is how to guarantee the right to appeal for about 3.66 lakh people excluded from the final voter list. While the EC maintained that every excluded person was served with orders explaining their reasons for exclusion, the petitioners disputed the claim.
"Since the time to file an appeal is running short", SC said it asked Bihar State Legal Services Authority, to send a communication, preferably today itself, to all the Secretaries of the District Legal Services Authority, to provide: (i) the services of the para-legal volunteers; and (ii) free legal aid counsels to enable the excluded persons to file their statutory appeals.