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Informist, Thursday, Jul. 10, 2025

 

 

-SC to poll panel: Consider Aadhaar, Voter ID, ration card in Bihar rolls 

--CONTEXT: SC order on pleas against revision of electoral rolls in Bihar 

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Thursday asked the Election Commission of India to consider Aadhaar Card, Voter ID Card, and Ration Card for the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar. Noting that the case needed hearing, the top court sought responses from the poll panel and all the parties. The top court said that it was not giving a direction to the election commission to revise the roll solely on the basis of these documents, and the poll panel has the discretion to accept or reject them.

 

The top court was hearing petitions by 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. The petitioners had contested the election commission's directive to hold special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar. 

 

The top court said that there were three points of challenges in the petition, which include the power of the poll panel to conduct the special intensive revision, the procedure adopted by the election commission and the timeline for conducting the special intensive revision which was right before the Bihar assembly elections in November. The top court will hear the case next on Jul. 28.

 

In the hearing, the top court observed, "We feel since Aadhaar has been taken as a solid proof for inclusion in electoral rolls as per Section 23 (of Representation Act, 1950), it should be included. Your (election commission) enumeration list is all related to identity - matriculation certificate, etc." 

 

 

The poll panel, defending the exclusion of Aadhaar, said that it cannot be accepted as a proof of citizenship. To this, the top court said that the issue of citizenship was to be determined by the Ministry of Home Affairs and not the Election Commission of India. Questioning the timelines provided by the poll panel for submitting these documents, the top court remarked, "If you ask for these documents immediately, even I will not be able to produce it now, look at the practicality, look at the timeline".

 

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 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 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.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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