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Informist, Friday, Aug. 22, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – In a major relief, the Supreme Court on Friday directed the Election Commission of India to accept "11 documents or Aadhaar Card" from those left out in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in the state. The special intensive revision exercise of rolls in the state must be voter-friendly, and Aadhar, being widely held all over India, should be accepted to ease the process, the court said.

 

The top court allowed the excluded voters to submit their claims online, in addition to the physical submission, as part of the special intensive revision of rolls in the state. The filing of the documents should be completed by Sept. 1, said the apex court.

 

Further, the bench of Justices Surya Kant and Jogmalya Bagchi expressed surprise that despite the state having 160,000 booth-level agents of political parties, only two objections were filed to the rolls as per the Election Commission of India. "We are surprised at what political parties are doing in Bihar. What are your BLAs (booth-level agents) doing? Political parties must help voters," the bench remarked. 

 

According to the poll panel, the booth-level agents were authorised to file 10 enumeration forms on behalf of struck-off voters per day. However, the individual voters had been more active in filing objections to deletions of their names than political parties that had cried foul over the revision exercise in Bihar, said the Election Commission. "Voters are more conscious than political parties!" the top court observed. The bench directed all the political parties to issue specific instructions to their booth-level agents to assist excluded voters in submitting the requisite forms. 

 

The Supreme Court had last week asked the Election Commission of India to publish on 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. The list should also reveal the reason for non-inclusion in the draft electoral rolls in Bihar, said the top court.

 

The court's order came after the Association for Democratic Reforms sought directions to the poll panel to publish the names and details of around 6.5 million electors left out of the draft electoral rolls in Bihar. The 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 top court was hearing a petition by the Association for Democratic Reforms, Rashtriya Janata Dal Member of Parliament Manoj Jha, 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 in November. Thereafter, the top court had asked the Election Commission to consider the statutory documents, such as the Aadhaar card and the voter identity card, for the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.

 

The petitioners said the revision was violative of the Constitution as well as provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and 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 Saji George Titus

 

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