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Informist, Monday, Jul. 7, 2025

 

--SC agrees to hear Thu pleas against revision of electoral rolls in Bihar 

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear Thursday pleas against the Election Commission of India's direction for special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar. Association for Democratic Reforms, a non-governmental organisation, Rashtriya Janata Dal Member of Parliament Manoj Jha, human rights body The People's Union for Civil Liberties, activist Yogendra Yadav, and All India Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Mahua Moitra have filed petitions against the Election Commission's directive.

 

The petitioners said the proposed 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 could arbitrarily and without due process disenfranchise millions 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, the petitioners said. The documentation requirements of the directive, the lack of due process, as well as the unreasonably short timeline for the revision in Bihar further make this exercise bound to result in the removal of names of millions of genuine voters from electoral rolls, leading to their disenfranchisement, they added.

 

The petitioners said 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 petitioners. 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 the citizenship of their parents, failing which they would not be added to the draft electoral roll and can be deleted from the same, the petitioners added.

 

The poll panel on Jun. 24 issued directions to carry out the special intensive revision of electoral rolls by adding the names of eligible citizens to the voter list and weeding 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 "wilful 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, among others. 

 

The petitioners said Bihar has high poverty and migration rates with many lacking access to documents like birth certificates or parental records. As per estimates, over 30 million voters, 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 petitioners. The current reports from Bihar, where the revision was already underway, show that millions of voters from villages and marginalised communities do not possess the documents being sought, said the petitioners.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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