Bihar SIR: SC seeks EC reply on deletion of 65 lakh voters

Highlights

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought the reply of the Election Commission of India (ECI) over a plea which alleged that the poll body had...

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought the reply of the Election Commission of India (ECI) over a plea which alleged that the poll body had not shared the list of names of those who were removed from the Bihar voters’ list after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) conducted in the state.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan, and N K Singh issued the notice on the application filed by NGO ADR.

Seeking an urgent hearing, Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for ADR, said, “We have filed an IA…the draft roll they have published says 65 lakh voters’ names have been omitted… They have not given a list of those names…they have said people are dead, have migrated… They should disclose who the 65 lakhs are, who are dead, who have migrated…”.

Bhushan said the names have been included in the list without the recommendations of the Booth Level Officers (BLOs). “BLOs when forwarding the forms have said this person is not recommended by BLO…Whether BLOs have recommended or not recommended… this information will be very important,” Bhushan added.

Justice Kant said, according to ECI’s Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), every representative of political parties would be provided with the list at the block level. Bhushan, however, claimed that this was not done. “They have not conveyed. In case they have given to some political party, reasons are not given,” he said.

Justice Kant said it was only a draft preliminary list, and reasons may be given when the final list is released.

The counsel appearing for the Election Commission said the poll body was obligated to make the draft roll public. He said, “We can show that we have shared the list with the political party representatives.”

The bench asked ECI to state all it had to say in its reply. “If you have supplied, please give a list of political parties to whom you have supplied, so that Mr Bhushan’s client can collect information from those authorised representatives,” said Justice Kant, giving the Commission time till Saturday.

Justice Kant added that the court will ensure that every voter who is likely to be affected gets the requisite information.