At a time when political controversy surrounding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar is at its peak, a petition has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to disclose details of the 65 lakh names recently removed from the state’s electoral roll, published on August 1.
The matter was mentioned on Wednesday morning before a Bench comprising Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan and NK Singh by Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). The Court has sought a response from the ECI.
“Draft roll says 65 lakh names have been omitted. But no list of those 65 lakh names has been given. It says 32 lakh migrated, but no other details. They should disclose who the 65 lakh are, who have migrated, and who are dead. Apparently, the BLOs have recommended whether a person be removed or not… they have published that for two constituencies… but what about other areas? We seek disclosure in these two IAs,” Bhushan submitted.
Justice Kant observed that, as per the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) followed by the ECI, representatives of political parties are to be provided with such information. The ECI, in response, said it would demonstrate that this information had been shared with the parties concerned. The Court then directed the ECI to place this on record.
“Give a list of political parties who were supplied with it. We will hear the case on August 12. File your reply by then,” Justice Kant told the ECI’s counsel.
Bhushan further argued, “The majority of those whose forms have been received have not submitted any of these forms.”
“We will see that every voter likely to be affected gets the required information,” Justice Kant assured.
Addressing the ECI’s counsel, the Court added, “File a reply by Saturday and let Mr Bhushan look at it. Then we can see what is disclosed and what is not disclosed.”
In its application, ADR referred to the ECI’s press release dated July 25, in which the Commission stated that approximately 65 lakh voters had been removed from the electoral roll. According to the ECI, this was based on reports from Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and Booth Level Agents (BLAs), which found that 22 lakh individuals on the previous list were deceased, 7 lakh were registered in multiple locations, and approximately 35 lakh had either migrated or were untraceable. The Commission also noted that enumeration forms for 1.2 lakh voters were yet to be received.
ADR has further submitted that the ECI, in the current format of the draft roll, has done away with the earlier practice of publishing a separate list of deleted electors. The number of deletions or additions is also not being clearly provided, the plea noted.
Additionally, the application stated that in at least two districts, Darbhanga and Kaimur, BLOs had not recommended the inclusion of a large number of voters, even though their enumeration forms had been uploaded.
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