New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to publish on the website of district electoral officers the list of 65 lakh names deleted from the draft electoral roll published by it on 1 August pursuant to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) being undertaken by it in Bihar.
Passing an interim order, the bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi directed that the list, along with reasons for the deletion, be uploaded on the websites by Tuesday. It directed that wide publicity should be given in newspapers, and through broadcast on Doordarshan and radio channels, about the publication of this list of deleted voters. In addition, a booth-wise list of these 65 lakh voters, along with reasons, has to be displayed on notice boards of panchayat officers, to enable public access to these lists.
The Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar has been directed to upload soft copies of district-wise lists of voters who have not been included in the draft list, with reasons, on the Bihar CEO website. These lists have to be searchable by EPIC numbers.
The court also directed that the public notice should mention that the aggrieved persons may submit their claims along with a copy of their Aadhaar cards.
The court is currently hearing petitions challenging the SIR exercise in Bihar. The petitions have been filed by several petitioners including Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra, Bharat Jodo Abhiyan national convener Yogendra Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha, and non-profit organisations Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).
ADR had filed an application before the court on 5 August, demanding publication of the assembly constituency and booth-wise list of names and details of the 65 lakhs electors who did not make it to the draft rolls, along with reasons.
This was days after the ECI published the draft electoral roll on 1 August.
According to the EC data, the draft electoral rolls based on the SIR exercise does not include over 65.6 lakh voters from 38 districts in Bihar.
Of these 65.6 lakh voters, the EC said, more than 22 lakh had died, over 36 lakh relocated permanently or were untraceable, and another seven lakh voters enrolled as electors in multiple places. The ECI, therefore, said their enumeration forms were not submitted or included in the draft rolls.
In response to ADR’s application, ECI had asserted that the law did not require it to share a separate list of people not included in the draft electoral roll or publish the reasons for their exclusion. It had asserted that “no such list can be sought by the petition as a matter of right”.
The ECI had also told the court that prior to the publication of the draft electoral rolls, the ECI had directed its officials to share with the political parties the booth-level list of individuals whose enumeration forms were not received due to any reasons. It had said that the people whose names were not included in the draft roll can still find a way back by submitting Form 6, which is the form for registration of new voters, by 1 September.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)