Supreme court makes BIG statement on EC's move of Bihar electoral rolls revision ahead of elections, says, 'timing...'

The Supreme Court on Thursday, July 10, questioned the timing of Election commission's move to conduct Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. The apex court was hearing on the petitions of the opposition against Election Commission's move for special voter verification drive in Bihar, just ahead Bihar Elections, scheduled for October-November.

Supreme court bench comprising Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi, said that this move is mandated by constitution, but the timing is the problem. Supreme court said, "What they are doing is a mandate under the Constitution. There is a practicality involved. They fixed the date because it was the first time after computerisation. So there is a logic."

"Your (ECI) exercise is not the problem, it is the timing," the bench added."There is nothing wrong in the exercise... except that a person will be disenfranchised ahead of the election and s/he won't have the time to defend the exclusion before voting," SC continued.

Supreme court questioned the linking of Special Intensive Revision practice to the upcoming elections in Bihar and that this move appears "a bit late". It said, "Why are you connecting the Special Intensive Revision to the elections? Why can’t it be irrespective of elections?"

Supreme court on Aadhar card exclusion from verification documents

As per the SIR, ECI has made it mandatory to submit a 'self-attested declaration' stating they are Indian citizens. It is must to submit documents to prove their date and place of birth, excluding Aadhar card. Senior advocate Sankaranarayan said to the Supreme court bench, that "Shockingly they (EC) say they will not accept Aadhaar... despite amendments to the act that allow Aadhaar for verification, they say now it will not be considered." He arhued that the exclusion was illogical.

To which, Supreme court asked Election commission, the reason behind excluding Aadhar card as a valid document during the verification process. The apex court said, "Why Aadhaar Not Accepted?".

Petitions against SIR

Over 10 parties and individuals including the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), activist Yogendra Yadav, and MPs from the RJD, TMC, Congress, NCP (SP), CPI, Shiv Sena (UBT), and others, have filed petition against Election commission's special voter verification.

The opposition has called it “unconstitutional.” They argues that this exercise is unacceptable, as lakhs of families in the Bihar do not have documents. The entire voter base, roughly 7.9 crore, will not be able to produce the documents as demanded by ECI. This exercise will deprive lakhs of electors from voting in the elections. Moreover, the timing of this exercise is also questioned. Opposition argues that Bihar is a big state with huge population and this exercise will not be completed within a month.

Election commission's Special Intensive Revisions

In June, Election commission of India  announced a special voter verification drive in Bihar, a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) conducting house-to-house verifications of new and existing voters. This is done to keep a check on the names on voter list and remove any ineligible voters. Through SIR, ECI aims to remove any illegal immigrants from the voter's list.