More Stories

Informist, Saturday, Jul. 5, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – A public interest litigation was filed in the Supreme Court on Saturday against the Election Commission of India's direction for special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar. The petitioner, Association for Democratic Reforms, a non-government organisation, said that the revision of electoral rolls in Bihar was violative of Articles 14, 19, 21, 325 and 326 of the Constitution of India as well as provisions of Representation of People's Act, 1950 and Rule 21A of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. 

 

If the Election Commission's order is not set aside, it can arbitrarily and without due process disenfranchise lakhs of voters from electing their representatives, thereby disrupting free and fair elections and democracy in the country, which are part of basic structure of the constitution, said the petitioner. The documentation requirements of the directive, lack of due process as well as the unreasonably short timeline for the revision in Bihar further make this exercise bound to result in removal of names of lakhs of genuine voters from electoral rolls leading to their disenfranchisement, the petitioner added.

 

The non-government organisation said that the poll panel's directive has shifted the onus of being on the voters' list from the State to citizens. It has excluded identification documents such as Aadhaar or ration cards, which further makes marginalised communities and the poor more vulnerable to exclusion from voting, said the organisation. The declaration as required under the revision process is violative of Article 326 in so far as it requires voters to provide documents to prove their citizenship and citizenships of their parents, failing which they would not be added to the draft electoral roll and can be deleted from the same, the organisation added.

 

The poll panel launched the revision on Jun. 24 to add the names of eligible citizens to the voter list and weed out ineligible voters. Before this, the last such revision for Bihar was done in 2003. The poll panel has reasoned that rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths, and the inclusion of names of foreign illegal immigrants, have made this revision necessary. However, the opposition parties have said that the voter list revision carries the risk of "willful exclusion" of voters using state machinery.

 

The documents listed for the exercise include a birth certificate issued by the competent authority, passport, matriculation certificate issued by recognised boards, permanent residence certificate, forest right certificate, caste certificate issued by the competent authority and others. 

 

The petitioner said that Bihar is a state with high poverty and migration rates where many lack access to documents like birth certificates or parental records. As per estimates, over 30 million voters and more particularly from marginalised communities such as scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and migrant workers could be excluded from voting due to the stringent requirements, said the petitioner. The current reports from Bihar, where the revision was already underway, show that lakhs of voters from villages and marginalised communities do not possess the documents as being sought of them, said the petitioner.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (11) 4220-1000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.