Publish list of deleted voters from Bihar electoral rolls, SC to poll panel
This story was originally published at 17:13 IST on 14 August 2025
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NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Thursday asked the Election Commission of India to publish in their district level websites, the list of names of 6.5 million electors left out of the draft electoral rolls in Bihar after a special intensive revision had taken place in the state. The list shall also reveal the reason for non-inclusion in the draft electoral rolls in Bihar, said the top court.
Aggrieved persons may submit their claims along with a copy of their Aadhaar cards, said the top court. In addition, the booth wise list of 6.5 million voters shall also be displayed on the noticeboard of all the panchayat bhawans and the block development and panchayat offices so that people have manual access to the list, said the apex court. The list can be accessed by electors photo identity card, the court added.
Further, the state electoral officer may also take soft copies of the district wise list of voters not included in the draft roll and shall display the district wise list on the website of the chief electoral officer of Bihar, said the apex court. The election commission shall obtain compliance reports from all the booth level and district level officers and file compliance reports with the apex court, said the bench. The top court will now hear the case next on Aug. 22.
The court's order came after the petitioner Association for Democratic Reforms sought directions to the poll panel to publish the name and details of around 6.5 million electors left out of the draft electoral rolls in Bihar. The petitioner, a non-government organisation, has asked the apex court to direct the poll panel to publish the assembly constituency and part or booth-wise list of names and details, including reasons such as deceased, permanently shifted, duplicate or untraceable, of around 6.5 million electors removed from the draft roll published on Aug. 1. The petitioner argued that the election commission has not specified whether the omitted voters are dead or have migrated. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, contended that political parties were not shared with the lists at the block level and that there was no clarity whether the inclusions or omissions were with the recommendations of the Booth Level Officers.
The top court was hearing a petition by the non-government organisation the Association for Democratic Reforms, 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 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. Thereafter, the top court had asked the election commission to consider the statutory documents of Aadhaar card and voter identity card for the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.
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. End
Reported by Surya Tripathi
Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury
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