SC refuses to stop poll panel from publishing draft electoral rolls in Bihar
This story was originally published at 14:54 IST on 28 July 2025
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NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Monday refused to stop the Election Commission of India from publishing its draft electoral rolls for Bihar Friday. The court, which is hearing a challenge to the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in the state, said the commission was only publishing a draft list and the court could ultimately strike the entire process down if it found any illegality.
On the top court's Jul. 10 order for the Election Commission of India to also consider the Aadhaar card, voter identity card, and ration card during the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, the panel raised certain reservations about these documents. It said several fake ration cards had been issued.
The court had asked the commission to at least consider the statutory documents of Aadhaar card and voter identity card. "You (Election Commission) will include these two documents (Aadhaar and voter identity)... wherever you find forgery, that's on a case-to-case basis. Any document on earth can be forged," a bench of Justice Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi had said.
The top court was hearing petitions filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms, a non-governmental organisation, Rashtriya Janata Dal Member of Parliament Manoj Jha, human rights group 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 commission's directive to hold a special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.
On Jul. 10, the top court had said there were three points of challenge in the petitions, which include the power of the poll panel to conduct a special intensive revision, the procedure adopted by it, and the timeline for conducting such a revision right before the Bihar assembly election, due November.
The petitioners said the revision was violative of Articles 14, 19, 21, 325, and 326 of the Constitution as well as provisions of The Representation of the People Act, 1951, 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 disfranchise millions of voters from electing their representatives, thereby disrupting free and fair elections and democracy in the country, which are part of the basic structure of the Constitution, the petitioners said.
The petitioners said the poll panel's directive has shifted the onus of inclusion in the voters' list from the state to citizens and excluded identification documents such as Aadhaar or ration card, which makes marginalised communities and the poor more vulnerable to exclusion.
The poll panel had 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. The last such revision for Bihar was done in 2003. The poll panel argued that rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths, and inclusion of names of illegal foreign immigrants had made this revision necessary. However, the opposition parties said the revision carries the risk of "wilful exclusion" of voters using the state machinery.
The documents listed for consideration for the exercise include a birth certificate issued by the competent authority, passport, matriculation certificate issued by recognised boards, permanent residence certificate, forest rights certificate, and a caste certificate issued by the competent authority. End
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Rajeev Pai
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