'There's confusion': Supreme Court asks EC to furnish details of 3.66 lakh voters deleted from final Bihar electoral roll

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to furnish details of the 3.66 lakh voters deleted from the electoral roll prepared after Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

The bench headed by Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi posed several questions to Election Commission as well as petitioners, including the Association of Democratic Reforms and assorted political parties, over the claims of unfair deletion of voters, NDTV reported.

Observing that a decision on validity of the SIR in Bihar cannot be made in the dark, the top court asked the petitioners to provide affidavits with examples of at least 100-200 such persons who have been wrongfully deleted from the voter list.

The poll panel informed the apex court that most of the names added in the final list after the publication of the draft list on August 30 were of new voters and that no complaint or appeal has been filed till now by any excluded voter.

The Supreme Court was responding to submissions in connection with the Bihar SIR, stating that the 3.66 lakh voters deleted in the final list – in addition to the 65 lakh removed in the draft list – had not been individually informed.

It said there is “confusion” whether the new names added to the final voters list for Bihar following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise are fresh ones or those re-included from the 65 lakh voters who were deleted in the draft roll, and asked the ECI to clarify this, Live Law reported.

This comes after some petitioners, including political leaders from opposition parties like RJD, Congress and CPI (M), said that the Election Commission (EC) has not given any notice or reasons to the deleted voters for their exclusion from the final electoral list.

On June 24, the Election Commission decided to conduct the SIR in poll-bound Bihar.

On Tuesday, the bench said that the poll body will submit whatever information it gets on excluded voters by Thursday (October 9), when it will hold the next hearing on these pleas. The top court said everyone has the draft electoral roll and the final list has also been published on September 30, so the required data can be furnished through a comparative analysis.

Justice Bagchi told senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the poll panel, that court orders have resulted in more transparency and access to the electoral process.

“You’d agree with us that the degree of transparency and access has improved in the electoral process. It appears from the data that there was a 65 lakh deletion in the draft list which you published, and we said whoever is dead or moved is alright, but if you are deleting someone, please follow Rule 21 and the SOP. We also said that whoever is deleted, please put up their data in your electoral offices. Now the final list appears to be an appreciation of numbers, and there is confusion in the general democratic process — what is the identity of the add-ons, are they of deleted names or new names. You have the draft and the final list. Just cull out these details and give us the information,” Justice Bagchi said, according to a report by News18.

Dwivedi replied that most of the names added are of new voters and there were a few old voters whose names were added after the draft roll was published.

“No complaint or appeal filed till now by any excluded voters,” Dwivedi said.

At the outset, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Rashtriya Janta Dal, and senior advocate Abhishek M Singhvi, appearing for opposition leaders challenging the poll panel decision to conduct the SIR, alleged that excluded voters were not given any notice or reasons for their deletion.

“Nobody knows whether the addition of names was from the 65 lakh excluded voters from the draft roll or whether new voters were added which reduced the number of excluded voters in the final list,” Singhvi said.

Bhushan alleged that the poll panel has not been following the required rules and, instead of cleaning the electoral roll, the SIR has compounded the problem.

“Total lack of transparency. When your lordships forced them to give a list of 65 lakh names, only then they gave the details and made it public. Now, they have not given a list of 3.66 lakh voters deleted due to objections filed after the publication of the draft roll,” he submitted.

Dwivedi countered the arguments, saying every individual voter whose name has been deleted has been given the order.

Final Voter List

On September 30, the EC, while publishing the final electoral list of the poll-bound Bihar, said that the total number of electors has come down by nearly 47 lakh to 7.42 crore in the final electoral roll from 7.89 crore before the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list carried out by the Election Commission.

The final figure has, however, increased by 17.87 lakh from 7.24 crore electors named in the draft list issued on August 1, which had removed 65 lakh voters from the original list on various accounts, including deaths, migration and duplication of voters.

While 21.53 lakh new electors have been added to the draft list, 3.66 lakh names have been removed, resulting in a net increase of 17.87 lakh.

The assembly elections in Bihar will be held in 121 seats of the 243-member Assembly on November 6, while the remaining 122 constituencies will go to polls on November 11. The counting of votes will be held on November 14.