No Stay On Bihar Voter Roll Revision, But SC Asks EC To Include Aadhaar, Voter ID
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to stay the Election Commission’s controversial exercise of conducting a “special intensive revision” of electoral rolls in Bihar, but asked the poll body to consider including Aadhaar, Voter ID, and Ration cards as valid documents for the verification process.
A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi, while hearing a batch of petitions filed by opposition leaders and civil society groups challenging the move, directed the Election Commission not to publish the final draft of the revised voter list until it hears the matter again on July 28.
“We have no reason to doubt them (ECI),” the bench observed, referring to the Election Commission. “Let the revision exercise be completed. And then your lordships can look at the entire picture,” the EC’s counsel had submitted.
The decision comes as a partial relief to the petitioners, who had sought a complete halt to the revision process, alleging it was an arbitrary exercise aimed at disenfranchising voters ahead of the state assembly elections due later this year.
During the hearing, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for one of the petitioners, highlighted that crucial documents like Aadhaar and Voter ID cards were not being accepted during the revision of the rolls, which will cover nearly 7.9 crore citizens.
The court took note of this and asked the Election Commission to consider their inclusion. The poll body had earlier argued that Aadhaar cannot be used as proof of citizenship.
Over 10 petitions have been filed against the EC’s decision, with the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) as the lead petitioner. Other petitioners include prominent opposition leaders like RJD’s Manoj Jha, Trinamool Congress’s Mahua Moitra, Congress’s K.C. Venugopal, and NCP(SP)’s Supriya Sule, who have all sought the quashing of the EC’s order for the special revision.
