Aadhaar Valid For Voter Roll Revision, Top Court Tells Election Commission

Bihar voters challenging their exclusion from the electoral roll - before the election later this year - can present the Aadhaar as proof of residence, the Supreme Court said Friday afternoon, directing the Election Commission to add the government-issued ID to a list of 11 others.

Excluded voters - numbering around 35 lakh people, the court estimated after deducting the number of those said to be dead and duplicate entries - however, were told to hurry up.

Justice Surya Kant directed the filing of all documents to be completed by September 1. This, though, can be completed online, a bench that included Justice Joymalya Bagchi said.

The top court - hearing petitions contesting the 'special intensive revision' of the voter list - said applications for re-inclusion can be submitted with either one of those 11 or the Aadhaar.

The court also had some strong comments for political parties in Bihar, demanding to know why they - many of whom have opposed the revision on grounds it was 'designed to disenfranchise' communities that usually vote for them - had not assisted lakhs in trying to get back on the list.

"Political parties are not doing their jobs..." the court said, echoing the poll panel's note that objections had filed been by individual politicians, i.e., MPs and MLAs, but not the parties.

"We are surprised at what political parties are doing in Bihar. What are your BLAs (booth-level agents) doing? Political parties must help voters," the court said after being told that only two objections - to exclusions of voters - had come from over 1.6 lakh BLAs from parties.

There was a note that some poll officials were not acknowledging BLAs' objections. To counter this, the court said acknowledgment receipts had to be offered when forms are submitted.

"This problem is beyond 65 lakh people," Advocate Vrinda Grover, appearing for one of the petitioners, said. "But we are only surprised by the inaction of parties. After appointing BLAs, what have they been doing?" the court replied, "Why there is a distance to the people?"

The EC then noted that BLAs were authorised to file 10 enumeration forms, i.e., on behalf of struck-off voters, per day, and that individual voters had been more active in filing objections to deletion of their names than political parties that had cried foul over the revision exercise.

The EC also noted no political party had submitted objections in writing.

"Voters are more conscious than political parties!" the court remarked, as it sought the names of parties in this case and impleaded them, and then posted the hearing next for September 8.

Earlier senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the poll panel, urged the court to give the Election Commission of India a 15-day window to show there had been no wrongful exclusion.

"Political parties are making hue and cry... things are not bad," he said, "Repose faith in the Election Commission and give us more time. We will be show you there are no exclusions."

The poll body also told the court around 85,000 voters excluded in draft rolls had moved for re-inclusion and more than two lakh new voters had come forward to register their names.

Last week the EC had been told to publish deleted names and file a compliance report.