Bihar electoral roll revision process is ‘voter-friendly, not exclusionary’, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the ongoing special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar is a “voter-friendly” one, as the Election Commission has listed 11 documents as proof of identity, The Indian Express reported.

The court said that in comparison, during the summary revision of voter rolls in 2003, there were only seven acceptable documents.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi made the observation while hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the voter roll revision in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections, expected in October or November.

The petitioners have raised concerns about the exclusion of Aadhaar cards as standalone valid proof for the revision process.

They have termed the decision “absurd” since Aadhaar is the most widely held identity document.

However, the court on Wednesday verbally observed that the Election Commission appeared to have given citizens more options.

“We understand your exclusionary argument maybe with regard to Aadhaar,” The Indian Express quoted Bagchi as saying. “The expansion of number of documents from what was followed in a summary revision to an intensive revision is, in fact, voter-friendly and not voter-exclusionary.”

However, Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the petitioners, contended that while the number of permissible documents had increased, most had low coverage in Bihar. He added that only 1%-2% of voters held passports in the state, PTI reported.

"If we see the availability of documents with the population in Bihar it can be seen the coverage is very low," he said.

On Tuesday, the court had said that including citizens and excluding non-citizens from voter rolls fell within the Election Commission’s remit. It also noted that it is not the Election Commission, but the Aadhaar Act that says the unique identification number is not proof of citizenship.

However, it had objected to the practice of allowing prospective voters to only submit a self-declaration of citizenship to be included in the voter rolls.

Bihar voter roll revision

The revision of the electoral rolls in Bihar was announced by the Election Commission on June 24.

As part of the exercise, persons whose names were not on the 2003 voter list needed to submit proof of eligibility to vote.

Voters born before July 1, 1987, were required to show proof of their date and place of birth, while those born between July 1, 1987, and December 2, 2004, had to also submit documents establishing the date and place of birth of one of their parents.

Those born after December 2, 2004, needed proof of date of birth for themselves and both parents.

The draft voter list, published on August 1, comprises electors who submitted their enumeration forms to the poll panel between June 24 and July 26. They will now have to produce proof of citizenship to make it to the final list that will be published on September 30.

Also read:

• EC replaces digital draft voter lists in Bihar with scanned images that make finding errors harder

• Highest exclusion in Bihar draft roll: Women, Muslim-dominant districts