Accept Aadhaar as one of 11 documents, Supreme Court tells EC on Bihar SIR; raps political parties for inaction

Supreme Court

Emphasizing on making the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) in Bihar voter friendly, the Supreme Court on Friday told the Election Commission to accept Aadhaar as one of the 11 documents a voter in Bihar can submit during the ongoing SIR of  electoral rolls.

The apex court also expressed surprise over political parties' inaction in not coming forward with the correction of names of deleted voters in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in poll-bound Bihar.

Trying to understand the role of  booth-level agents (BLAs), the apex court stated that BLAs associated with political parties are local persons and in small villages people know each other. At least, this info will be there. Who is a migrant etc.

The apex court also expressed concern over the names that did find mention in the electoral rolls -- 65 lakh people were removed from the draft electoral rolls published as part of the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise.

The SC also took note of ECI’s submission that 85,000 new voters have come forward in SIR of Bihar, and only two objections have been filed by booth-level agents of political parties.

The Election Commission is  publishing the names of ‘ASD’ (Absentee, Shifted, and Dead) voters across polling booths.According to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Bihar, ASD lists have been displayed at polling booths in Rohtas, Begusarai, Arwal and other places.

On Thursday, the Election Commission filed a compliance report before the apex court on the ongoing revision of Bihar’s electoral rolls, which has drawn scrutiny after large-scale deletions.

The Court, on August 14, had recorded the ECI’s consent to adopt interim measures designed to improve transparency in the electoral roll revision. These measures require the online publication of the names of nearly sixty-five lakh voters who appeared in the 2025 rolls but are missing from the draft rolls.

Each district’s website is to host booth-wise data, searchable by EPIC number, along with reasons for exclusion. The Bench had set a deadline of August 19 for completing the exercise.

The bench also required that the notices should expressly inform citizens that they may file claims for inclusion in the rolls, accompanied by a copy of their Aadhaar card. A consolidated state-level list is also to be made available on the website of the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar. “The idea is to ensure that no eligible voter is left without recourse,” the Bench had observed while fixing the matter for monitoring.