New Delhi: The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, resumed hearing appeals against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and asked the poll body to be ready with facts and figures.
The Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi told ECI that it will be asking questions regarding the facts and figures on the SIR that is being conducted ahead of the Assembly polls in the state. ECI released the draft rolls on August 1. The final rolls are expected on September 30 after necessary corrections.
“We are going to need some facts and figures,” Justice Kant said while hearing senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Manoj Jha. The RJD leader is among others who have accused the ECI of trying to disenfranchise valid voters from marginalised and minority communities ahead of the polls in Bihar.
Sibal pointed out that 12 people, declared dead in one Constituency, were found alive. He also claimed that in some cases, people declared alive are actually dead.
Responding to this, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the ECI, said that such exercises are “bound to have some defects”. He further said that such mistakes can be corrected since only the draft rolls have been released.
On July 29, the Supreme Court, while refusing to stay the preparation of the draft rolls, had assured the petitioners that it would step in immediately in case of a “mass exclusion” in the voters’ lists. Earlier, the Court had also asked the ECI to consider documents like Aadhaar and Election Photo Identity Cards as valid documents.
Apart from Jha, several other leaders and civil society institutions also filed complaints against the revision of electoral rolls shortly before the polls. They include Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Supriya Sule from the Sharad Pawar NCP faction, Congress’ K C Venugopal, and Arvind Sawant from the Shiv Sena (UBT). Civil society bodies, including PUCL, NGO Association of Democratic Reforms, and activists like Yogendra Yadav, also moved the SC against the ECI decision.