“The Supreme Court’s ruling on the Bihar SIR matter is a massive victory for democracy, and a huge message for the Vote Chors who tried to use the SIR to distort the electoral process in Bihar”: Congress
In a major decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to publish details of around 65 lakh deleted names from the voters list with reasons of non-inclusion to enhance transparency in Bihar’s special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral roll.
A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi passed the interim order while hearing pleas challenging the EC’s June 24 decision.
The two-judge Bench ordered the poll body to publish a searchable list of excluded names, booth-wise, along with the reasons for non-inclusion, on district electoral officers’ websites by 5 PM on August 19. The judges also asked for wide publicity informing the people about the places where the list would be available. The list along with reasons should be displayed at the panchayat level office and the office of district level returning officers, accord
The draft roll was published on August 1.
Meanwhile, those aggrieved by the deletion of their names can approach the poll officials along with their Aadhaar card.
“Important step in the fight against disastrous SIR process”: Congress
The Congress called the ruling on the Bihar SIR matter a “massive victory for democracy, and a huge message for the Vote Chors who tried to use the SIR to distort the electoral process in Bihar”.
“As one of the petitioners in this case, it is heartening that in unequivocal terms, the Court has ordered that machine-readable electoral rolls be made available – in line with one of the central demands of Rahul ji’s press conference.
“We also welcome the insistence on swift declaration of the 65 lakh deleted names by the ECI which will no doubt go a long way in bringing much needed transparency to the SIR process.
“The Court rejecting the ECI’s decision to not accept Aadhar is also a major boost, since in a state like Bihar, Aadhaar is the most widely held document by the poor and marginalised.
“We see this as an important first step in our fight against the draconian and disastrous SIR process. Our fight to expose the ECI’s malpractices and complicity in vote rigging,” said senior Congress leader KC Venugopal
Reasons cited by the EC for non-inclusion of previously registered voters in the draft rolls included death (22.34 lakh), “permanently shifted/absent” (36.28 lakh) and “already enrolled (at more than one places)” (7.01 lakh).
Earlier, the top court said the expanded list of acceptable documents of identity from seven to 11 for Bihar’s SIR of voters’ list was “voter-friendly and not exclusionary.”
Leaders of opposition parties including the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress and the NGO Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) have challenged the electoral roll revision drive in Bihar.
