The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Election Commission (EC) to file a reply within three days (by August 9) to an application seeking disclosure of details of 65 lakh voters whose names were excluded from the draft electoral rolls as part of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in poll-bound Bihar. The rolls were released on August 1.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), today sought an urgent hearing of a fresh application in the ongoing SIR proceedings in the Supreme Court.
The petitioners claimed the poll body's list fails to provide any explanations for these exclusions.
"It fails to provide any explanation as to why these names were not included in the Draft Electoral Rolls, whether for reasons of having been dead, permanently migrated out of Bihar, being untraceable or on the grounds of duplicate entry," the application in the top court read.
"The ECI's concealment of the reason for deletion against each name in the list of 65 lakh electors seems to be an attempt to obviate the general public, including the petitioners, from ascertaining whether or not electors whose names figure in the said list are indeed dead or permanently migrated," it added.
Justice Surya Kant said that as per the Election Commission's SOP, every representative of the political party will be provided with the details.
However, advocate Prashant Bhushan - who was representing the petitioner - told the court that more than 75 percent of voters who have filled the enumeration form allegedly didn't furnish any supporting documents mentioned in the list of 11 documents and that their inclusion or exclusion was based on the recommendation of Booth Level Officers (BLO) of the poll panel.
The petition also sought details on the assembly constituency and booth-wise list of electors whose enumeration forms have been marked "not recommended by the BLOs."
The petitioners sought the direction so that political parties and the general public can cross-check and verify the draft electoral rolls.
The petition claimed that the present list of names dropped from the draft rolls "provided by the EC to some political parties serves no purpose, and cannot be used to cross-check any details from the ground".
It claimed that the poll body had the data on the reasons for deleting the names, but it still removed the column specifying these reasons before releasing the draft roll on August 1.
It alleged that while the EC had provided this information in an earlier version of the electoral roll shared with some political parties before the draft roll was published, the corresponding column titled "Uncollectable Reason" was omitted from the list circulated after publication.
The Supreme Court directed the Election Commission to clarify whether the draft roll was shared with political parties prior to publication, and to specify which parties were given the lists.
The poll body, however, said the information about deleted voters had already been shared with the booth-level representatives of political parties.
Justice Kant-led bench then asked the EC to place the details on record.
The top court will resume hearing the SIR matter on August 12.
In the last hearing, the top court had remarked that the political parties must act as NGOs and bring to the notice of the court if there were any cases of unjust exclusion.
On Tuesday, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) filed an interlocutory application in the plea challenging the decision of the EC for an SIR in Bihar.
It referred to the poll body press statement dated July 25, which said that nearly 65 lakh voter names stand to be deleted from the existing electoral rolls as a result of the SIR process.
The reasons cited by the EC for non-inclusion of previously registered voters in the draft rolls included death (22.34 lakh), 'permanently shifted/absent' (36.28 lakh) and 'already enrolled (at more than one place)' (7.01 lakh).
The petition also claimed that, as per the Election Commission, those whose names do not figure in the draft roll "do not enjoy the right to routine legal remedies (notice, personal hearing and appeals) available under Section 21A of the Registration of Voters Rules".
"They do not have the option of participating in the process of claims and objections and thus are at the biggest risk of disenfranchisement." The application read.
The draft electoral roll was published on August 1 and the final roll on September 30 amid opposition claims that the ongoing exercise will deprive crores of eligible citizens from their right to vote.
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