Latest news with #AbhishekSinghvi
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
EC can't reject Aadhaar, voter ID, ration card in SIR, claims Congress
Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi , lead counsel for a group of Opposition parties challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in Bihar , said on Saturday that the Supreme Court 's interim order clearly directs the Election Commission to consider Aadhaar , voter ID and ration cards as valid documents during the ongoing verification process. He said this means the EC cannot reject these documents outright until the next hearing in the matter, expected in two weeks. Singhvi also rejected the narrative that the apex court had refused to stay the SIR, saying the petitioners never sought a stay in the first place. Addressing a press conference, Singhvi said: "What is this SC order? I'm here to clarify and stop misinformation. The court has given the earliest possible date for hearing-about two weeks away-because the process is ongoing. It directs the EC to 'consider' three documents: Aadhaar, voter ID, and ration cards. So the EC cannot reject them outright. It cannot insist on only one type of proof, as its press note suggests. That's why we didn't press for an interim stay." by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Maisons saisies disponibles à Puget-sur-argens à prix symboliques WallStreet Viral Recherchez Undo He also said the EC has no locus standi to turn the SIR into a citizenship verification exercise, as such matters fall under the jurisdiction of citizenship tribunals and the Ministry of External Affairs. Singhvi pointed out that the Representation of the People Act was amended years ago to include Aadhaar, and questioned why the EC was now treating it as inadmissible. He also noted that Bihar has held 10 elections-five Assembly and five Lok Sabha-since the last intensive roll revision in 2003. "What is the justification for insisting on the SIR just months ahead of the next state election?" he asked. Live Events
Time of India
2 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
'It is a relief for democracy': Congress hails SC suggestion on EC's revision of Bihar electoral rolls
NEW DELHI: Congress hailed Supreme Court hearing on EC's revision of Bihar electoral rolls as a significant step, and expressed hope that the poll watchdog will accept additional documents like Aadhaar for voter's verification. Congress general secretary and MP K C Venugopal said, "It is a relief for the democracy. The matter will now be heard on July 28. Supreme Court has given its views through this that Aadhaar, voter ID and ration card are to be part of the verification process. I think Election Commission will go with this suggestion of Supreme Court. Let's wait for it." Lawyer-MP Abhishek Singhvi said, "After extensive arguments, Supreme Court has clearly suggested that three documents, namely Aadhaar, voter ID and ration cards, be also considered by EC in the process of enumeration." "This is a significant advance. All other merits remain open and time for reply and rejoinder has been given till end of July." "On the main issue, our contentions are significant and will be considered by the court at a later date. Those contentions included the important point that presumption of eligibility and voter registration has been reversed by EC by putting all the electors existing on the electoral rolls in a state of suspended animation...," he said.
The Hindu
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Explained: Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar and ‘fear of NRC'
Story so far: Four months before the Bihar state elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has kicked off a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in the State. The exercise aims of the SIR are to 'ensure that no eligible citizen is left out while no ineligible person is included in the Electoral Roll'. The enumeration drive, which began on July 1, will see the draft electoral roll published on August 1 and the final roll on September 30 after disposal of claims and objections. Also Read: Bihar voter list row hearing updates '20% of the population, who migrate in search of livelihood, are in danger of losing their voting rights. The purpose of this exercise is exclusion rather than inclusion,' warned Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Manoj Jha. Congress MP Abhishek Singhvi questioned if revision of over eight crore voters could be carried out in just two months, asking, 'The 2003 revision was held well in advance of national and State elections. Why choose to do this at the cusp of the elections?' Responding to concerns, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar assured that the revision being undertaken after a gap of 22 years is running as per schedule with the active participation of all political parties. ECI also uploaded the 2003 Electoral Roll of Bihar, comprising details of 4.96 crore electors – thus eliminating the need for any documentation from them. Also, those born after 1987 need not give the proof of birth of their parents if the latter's names figure in the 2003 rolls. Here's a look at the SIR, its history, intent and ramifications What is SIR and how is it being conducted? Invoking the Constitution's Article 324 and the Representation of People Act, 1950, the ECI has directed a 'revision' of the electoral rolls in Bihar, marking July 1, 2025 as the qualifying date. Split in multiple phases, the SIR will comprise physical verification of Bihar's eligible electors, restructuring of polling stations, updation and preparation of revised electoral rolls, decide on claims and final publication of electoral rolls. Here's the breakdown Trained Booth level officers (BLO) will distribute, help filling enumeration forms to existing electors (4.89 crore), visiting door-to-door. BLOs will also collect enumeration forms and and give recommendation on each form. Last date for submission in July 25, 2025. Polling booths will be re-arranged as per requirement and boundaries of constituencies will be finalised. Each polling must preferrably not contain more than 1200 electors. Electoral rolls will be updated as per the filled enumeration forms and a draft electoral roll will be published on August 1, 2025. Between August 1 and September 1, anyone who have objections or claims in response to the draft electoral rolls can file them By September 25, a decision on the filled enumeration forms as well as the claims filed will be taken. Final electoral roll will be updated in the database and published on September 30, 2025 During enumeration, those who already feature in the 2003 electoral roll need to just submit their filled enumeration forms. Others will have to provide one of the eleven listed documents as proof. These are government employee card/pension order, any government-issued ID priorto July 1, 1987, birth certificate, passport, recognised educational certificate, permanent residence certificate, forest rights certificate, Caste certificate by a competent authority, National Register of Citizens, family register or any land/house allotment certificate by government. Commonly used IDs such as voter IDs, PAN, Aadhaar, ration cards and MGNREGA cards do not feature in the list. However, a Supreme Court bench hearing pleas against the SIR exercise asked ECI to consider these commonly used IDs as proof. Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) – a Bihar-based party founded by poll strategist Prashant Kishor, has questioned the odd choice of documents required. 'People who don't even have a thatched roof over their heads are expected to keep their dead parents' birth certificates with them,' told Mr. Uday Singh, JSP National President to The Hindu. 'Documents which are the easiest to access like Aadhar card, Labour card or MGNREGA card are not listed. Bihar has the lowest birth registration rate and poor literacy. These citizens are expected to produce passports, birth certificate instead (of the above-mentioned ID proofs),'adds Mr. Singh. Highlighting Bihar's social indices, Akhtar Iman, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen's (AIMIM) Bihar president says, 'In 1987, birth registration was a mere 2%, it then increased to 15% and now, even when the national average is at 62%, we are 40%. Half of Bihar's population – i.e., labourers, Dalits, and the extremely backward class have no such documents. All these restrictions seem like an attempt to exclude poor, backward voters'. In response, ECI had issued advertisements in Patna newspapers on July 6, telling electors, 'If you are unable to provide the required documents, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) can take a decision on the basis of local investigation or other documentary evidence.' 'What the ECI says is both reassuring and worrying. This is not a new power being given to the ERO, it has always been there. However, this gives rise to a suspicion that if the ERO is allowed to use his discretion, whether or not he will be biased towards one section of society. It is everybody's apprehension that is perhaps designed towards that,' says Mr. Singh. Jan Suraaj Party may become an Interlocutor at some point if necessary, adds the party chief. As Opposition highlighted that this relaxation showed the 'pressure under which ECI was', the poll body stated that electors will get more time to submit documents. When were electoral rolls revised before? The ECI has stated that such SIR were previously conducted in 1952-56, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1966, 1983-84, 1987-89, 1992, 1993, 1995, 2002, 2003 and 2004 in all or some parts of the country for fresh preparation of electoral rolls. In Bihar, the last SIR was conducted in 2003. As is the case in the current drive, the SIR was done in 31 days, without the technological support available today. Moreover, before the polls, electoral rolls were revised as per the regular cycle in 2005. Bihar EC found 70,000 'duplicate names' in Patna alone, and persons with non-bailable warrants who were featured in the electoral rolls were removed during the process, reported The Hindu. 'In 2002-2003, SIR was conducted two years prior to the polls. Why are they conducting this SIR just 3-4 months before polls now? Why are legal voters listed in 2002 being asked to produce their birth certificates? The three types of documents needed for those born prior to 1987, 2003 and post-2004 and the necessity to show birth certificates of their parents have no basis,' says Mr. Iman. 'I am from Bihar and do not have a birth certificate. How can you expect labourers working in other states to produce them. Labour unions across India are protesting this SIR,' a senior poll strategist at I-PAC tells The Hindu. The latest revision of electoral rolls was done in the Special Summary Revision drive between June 2024 and January 2025. A final draft of the electoral rolls was published in January this year, while a supplement revision was published in April. 'Every election cycle in India starts from Bihar and ends with Delhi. So, who is responsible for not deleting bogus voters from electoral rolls? It is the EC. The question is why SIR was not done before 2009, 2014, 2019, 2024 Lok Sabha polls', asks I-PAC's senior strategist. Who can benefit from SIR? JSP asserts that his party is not questioning the EC's powers to do so, Mr. Singh says, 'When you had the 2024 election and nobody complained about ghost voters here. So, it is curious for the EC to wake up now, when rains are battering Bihar'. Noting how former Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said polls should have not be held in peak summer, Mr. Singh says weather plays a role in polling process. He adds, 'But now, the new Election Commissioner seems to have forgotten all this. Half of my state is under water now, people are moving to higher ground and shelters and this (SIR) is happening now. Most Biharis work outside the state and to expect them to come here physically for this verification is cruel'. While electoral rolls in India have always included people over 18 years from their ordinary place of residence, this time the EC is looking into the place of birth. An I-PAC strategist explains: ' Now, they are prioritizing place of birth – an American concept. In India, one needs to be a citizen, not born here to stand for elections,' he says. AIMIM feels that this SIR will help the NDA. 'If bogus voting were suspected in 2024 elections, were the results not verified? If the 2024 elections were accepted as fair by all, why not allow the 2025 elections happen and then conduct an SIR?,' asks Mr. Iman. The AIMIM chief also highlights that the EC has allowed the BLO to attempt three visits to a voter's house to verify his details and make a recommendation accordingly. 'This is the first time a voter's citizenship is under scrutiny. When did EC get powers to question a person's citizenship?,' he asks. Similarly, I-PAC's senior strategist feels it is the Mahagathbandhan that will see its voters excluded via SIR. 'Generally, BJP voters are from urban, upper caste and upper-middle-class communities. Extremely Backward class voters (EBCs) which are the target voter groups of JD(U) and Jan Suraaj are also in a threatening position. Also, it is not a Hindu-Muslim thing but generally voters lower in the social strata are under threat of exclusion,' he explains. Fears of NRC Most parties and poll strategists fear that the SIR may be an attempt to conduct a state-wide NRC in Bihar – a move opposed by most. Moreover, NRC has been listed as one of the eleven documents proving voters' eligibility. 'When NRC has not been conducted in Bihar, why list it? 70% of Bihari youth are currently working as farm labourers in Punjab and Haryana. 7-8 districts in North Bihar are flooded now. We fear that there is an attempt to door NRC via back door, exclude certain population of voters and discriminate against poor, backward voters under the pressure of the NDA,' says Mr. Iman. Claiming that even poor and backward voters of NDA are protesting against SIR, he terms the move a 'tughlaqi farman' (dictatorial order) to trouble voters. 'All key stake-holders must have been consulted before such a drive was conducted. For electoral reform, EC should understand ground reality, build consensus at the bottom and then implement. Currently, it is being pushed hurriedly and in a dictatorial fashion,' says the strategist. He adds that not even the BLOs are facing tremendous pressure and are receiving no support from the ground. 'While main purpose seems to be electoral reform, we cannot reject the possibility of a back-door NRC. Voters in Kishanganj, Araria, Katihar, Seemanchal region and those close to the 'chicken neck' (areas bordering the North-Eastern states) can be targetted,' explains I-PAC's senior strategist. Amid Opposition MPs flagging risks of 'mass disenfranchisement' via SIR, the Supreme Court is currently hearing petitions challenging the drive.
Hindustan Times
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Bihar electoral roll revision: Concerns persist as party reps meet ECI
Concerns persisted even as representatives of 11 parties, including the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), met top Election Commission of India (ECI) officials to oppose the special intensive revision of the electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar. Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi called the revision a violation of the level playing field. (PTI) RJD lawmaker Manoj Jha said that the two-and-a-half-hour meeting with chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, and commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, on Wednesday was not cordial, and the reflection that should have accompanied their concerns was absent. He called the revision a conspiracy to 'displace' tens of thousands of people in Bihar. '...It is also a question of Bihar's identity. You have set out to find doubtful voters in Bihar, and that reveals your intentions…' Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi called the revision a violation of the level playing field. He added that if voters are left out, it would be an insult to the Constitution's basic structure. The ECI has said an electoral roll revision was last held in Bihar in 2003, which covered nearly 50 million people, underlining it has a constitutional obligation to ensure that only citizens are on it. It instructed the electoral registration officers to treat the 2003 electoral roll as 'probative evidence of eligibility, including presumption of citizenship unless they receive any other input otherwise.' Singhvi noted that 22 years have passed since 2003 and questioned whether all the elections held during this time were wrong and not according to the rules. 'If you had to conduct an intensive revision, why announce it in June? They could have done it after January. The documents you [ECI) are asking for over the last decade have been Aadhaar and ration card.' He said now one needs a birth certificate, and documents of the father and mother. 'Migrants, already suffering from floods, will keep running around for documents.' Singhvi said a level playing field has for decades been the foundation of elections. 'Those who are on the voter list [and] without documents will find themselves deprived of their right to vote.' He said the backward communities will have to run around, without documents, despite their names being on the list. 'This is a violation of the level playing field because it is the foundation of any election and a republic, which in turn is the basis of the basic structure of the Constitution. Any insult to this [voting right] will be an insult to the basic structure.' Jha echoed Singhvi and said they raised the concerns of Bihar's poor, downtrodden, backward, Dalit, and Muslim communities. 'We submitted how this is…an attempt to displace people; a conspiracy to remove them from the voter roll…If the purpose of any exercise shifts from inclusion to exclusion, what can we say?' He questioned the rationale for repeating something done 22 years ago. 'There was no answer. Are your employees equipped? No response. What will happen if issues arise within a month? The criteria you use to measure people do not have those documents.' Jha said he was referring to those lacking sufficient belongings. 'These are poor people enduring both drought and floods, and in the midst of this, you demand documents within a month. If your [ECI] intention is to displace people on a large scale, this story would not end here. There will be a flood on the streets, too.' He called the right to vote the most important right. '...one vote, one value, whether it is an industrialist or a landless farmer. If you are [ECI] tampering with that right at someone's behest… I hope the ECI reads the writing on the wall.' Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said that the ECI brought up Maharashtra, where Rahul Gandhi has alleged industrial-scale voter rigging, to justify the exercise in Bihar. 'The Commission did not say anything about why there was no prior consultation. For the people of Bihar, this is like notebandi [demonetisation]...they call it votebandi [restricting voting]. They [ECI] did not even indicate expanding the list of documents supporting eligibility, although they may consider something at a later stage.' Bhattacharya said they made all the points, but the ECI did not say anything. '...these are no concerns [for ECI]. The voting right itself is at stake.' The ECI said the concerns of the political parties were fully addressed and maintained that the revision was being conducted as per the Constitution. 'The Commission thanked all political parties for appointing more than 1.5 lakh [150,000] Booth Level Agents (BLAs) at the ground level for participating in the SIR [special intensive revision] exercise. ...thanked all political parties for actively participating in the SIR process so that no eligible voter is left out.' On June 24, the ECI announced the revision, emphasising the need to clean the electoral roll due to rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, increasing numbers of first-time voters, non-reporting of deaths, and the inclusion of names of undocumented foreigners.
New Indian Express
03-07-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Opposition meets EC, opposes Bihar poll roll revision
NEW DELHI: Leaders of several INDIA bloc parties met the Election Commission on Wednesday and flagged concerns over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. Leaders from 11 parties, including the Congress, RJD, CPM, CPI, CPI(ML) Liberation, NCP-SP and Samajwadi Party met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and other election commissioners, objecting to the special scrutiny being conducted just a few months ahead of the assembly election in the state. The INDIA bloc parties have been vocal in their opposition to the exercise of the Special Intensive Revision, which has already started in Bihar, and is to be carried out in five more states -- Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal -- that are going to polls next year. Speaking to media after the meeting, Congress MP Abhishek Singhvi said they also protested against the new directive of the poll panel for entry to the Election Commission premises that ask only party presidents to appear before it.
