Supreme Court Refuses Interim Stay On Election Body's Bihar Roll Revision

NDTV

a day ago

New Delhi:
The Supreme Court will hear on Thursday the challenge against the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list in poll-bound Bihar. The court accepted the petitioners' request for an urgent hearing in the matter, but refused to pause the exercise.
Four petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court, challenging the poll body's revision of voter lists months ahead of the Assembly polls. The petitioners are Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha, poll watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms, rights body People's Union for Civil Liberties, activist Yogendra Yadav and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra.
Appearing for the petitioners, Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Singhvi, Shadan Farasat and Gopal Sankaranarayanan sought an urgent hearing. They said the revision exercise would lead to the removal of lakhs of names from voter lists and women and the underprivileged will be worst-hit. The matter concerns lakhs of voters, Mr Sibal said.
What Is Special Intensive Revision
Launched on June 24, the Special Intensive Revision aims to add the names of eligible citizens to the voter list and weed out ineligible voters. The last such revision for Bihar was carried out in 2003. The Election Commission has said multiple reasons, such as rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths, and the inclusion of names of foreign illegal immigrants, have made this revision necessary.
How Will This Be Done
The Election Commission has said Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will conduct a house-to-house survey to verify voters by reviewing documents. The poll body has said it will strictly follow provisions regarding voter eligibility and grounds for disqualification. The Election Commission has said poll officials have been asked to ensure that genuine electors, particularly old, sick, Persons with Disabilities (PwD), poor and other vulnerable groups, are not harassed. It has also sought help from political parties to ensure discrepancies are resolved at the preparation stage of the revised voter roll.
BJP vs Opposition
The Congress has said the voter list revision carries the risk of "willful exclusion" of voters using state machinery. "Lakhs of union and state government officials will now control and dictate who has correct documents and who doesn't, who gets to vote in the upcoming Bihar elections etc. This carries a huge risk of willful exclusion of voters using the power of the state machinery," it has said.
Tejashwi Yadav, Leader of the Opposition in Bihar Assembly, has said this revision months ahead of the Bihar election is a "conspiracy". "The last time the routine process of revision of voter list was done was 2003... it has not happened since. And when it happened in 2003, it took about two years to complete," he said.
"Now elections are to be held in November. Two months are left before the notification process begins. That means the Election Commission has to make a new list... of 8 crore people... in just 25 days. And that too when 73 per cent of the state is affected by floods!" he said.
The BJP, which is part of the ruling coalition in Bihar, said the exercise is being conducted to ensure the integrity of the electoral process.
BJP leader and Bihar minister Nitin Nabin has questioned Congress's intent behind opposing the exercise. "If genuine voters are being verified and fake voters are being removed, is Congress sitting here to commit fraud? I want to ask the Opposition members who are opposing this, are you trying to gain power through fake votes?"