“Bring 15 people they (ECI) says are dead, but found alive… we will look into it,” SC tells petitioners; Hearing now on August 12 and 13.
The Supreme Court assured on Tuesday that it would step in immediately if persons omitted as dead from the draft electoral roll as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) conducted by the Election Commission of India (EC) in Bihar are found “very much alive”.
Fixing a timeline for considering a batch of pleas challenging the SIR exercise in Bihar, the Apex Court said that hearing on the issue will be held on August 12 and 13. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi also asked the petitioners challenging the poll panel’s decision to file their written submissions by August 8.
The scheduled will be published on August 1
The Bench also said that they would not hesitate to act if the list was riddled with “mass exclusions”, but asked petitioners to wait till the draft list. Apprehensions till then can only be speculative. “Bring 15 people they (ECI) say are dead, but found alive… we will look into it,” Justice Bagchi was quoted as saying, addressing senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocate Prashant Bhushan for petitioners.
The petitioners have criticised the SIR as “citizenship screening”. Apprehensions have also been raised by Opposition parties and NGOs, including Association for Democratic Rights, that 65 lakh people in Bihar have been excluded from the draft electoral roll with an explanation that most of them were either dead or had permanently shifted.
Justice Bagchi reasoned that the draft roll would be prepared on the basis of a January 7, 2025 list of voters assembled after a special summary revision of the Bihar electoral roll. An ECI affidavit in the Apex Court stated that voters in the existing January 2025 electoral roll would feature in the draft roll on August 1, provided they submitted their enumeration forms, with or without documents.
The EC said electors unable to make it to the draft roll had a further period of 31 days, till September 1, 2025, to make their claims and get corrections done before the final roll came out on September 30, 2025.
