New Delhi, Aug 13: The Supreme Court on Wednesday described the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in Bihar as “voter friendly,” observing that the 11 documents accepted for inclusion were more than the seven used in previous summary revisions.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, hearing pleas against the Election Commission’s June 24 decision to conduct the SIR in poll-bound Bihar, said the larger number of acceptable documents suggested the exercise was aimed at inclusion, despite petitioners’ concerns over Aadhaar not being accepted.
“The number of documents in the summary revision conducted earlier was seven, and in the SIR it is 11, which shows it is voter friendly. We understand your arguments that non-acceptance of Aadhaar is exclusionary, but a high number of documents is actually inclusionary,” the bench noted.
Petitioners, represented by senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, disagreed, arguing that while the list was long, document coverage in Bihar was limited. Singhvi pointed out that passports were held by only one to two percent of the population and that the state did not issue permanent resident certificates.
“If we see the availability of documents with the population in Bihar, it can be seen the coverage is very low,” Singhvi submitted.
The bench, however, observed that 36 lakh passport holders in the state represented “good coverage” and noted that such lists are “normally prepared after taking feedback from various government departments to ensure maximum coverage,” Justice Bagchi said.
On August 12, the court backed the Election Commission’s position that neither Aadhaar nor voter cards are conclusive proof of citizenship for the purposes of the SIR. It reiterated that the inclusion or exclusion of individuals from the electoral rolls lies within the EC’s remit.
As political debate over the SIR intensified in and outside Parliament, the bench also remarked that the controversy reflected “largely a trust deficit issue,” noting the EC’s assertion that about 6.5 crore of Bihar’s 7.9 crore voters need not submit any documents because they or their parents were already listed in the 2003 electoral rolls.
