Bihar SIR row:Voters excluded can file claims online with Aadhaar or any other 11 prescribed docs, says SC; Cong hails order

New Delhi, Aug 22 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Election Commission to allow excluded voters to submit their claims online or physically with Aadhaar card or any one of the 11 prescribed documents in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.

Emphasising that the entire enumeration exercise has to be voter friendly, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi at the same time expressed surprise over political parties not coming forward to assist the voters, who have been excluded from the draft list published on August 1, in filing objections, It then directed the chief electoral officer of Bihar to implead the political parties in the court proceedings.

Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the EC, submitted that the poll panel has put the entire list of 65 lakh excluded voters in public domain with reasons by displaying it at the office of district returning officer, chief electoral officer office, Panchayat and block level office, websites and social media handles. The lists have been put up at every polling booth also, he added.

The court asked the political parties to file the status report by the next date of hearing on the claim form they had facilitated in the filing by excluded voters. It posted the matter for further hearing on September 8.

It directed the recognised political parties to issue specific directions to their over 1.60 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) to facilitate filling of the claim forms of 65 lakh excluded voters except for those who are dead and those who have voluntarily migrated to other constituencies.

The top court noted that since August 1 only two objections with regard to excluded voters were filed by BLAs, a figure which was disputed by RJD MP Manoj Jha, who claimed through his lawyer Fauzia Shakil that booth level agents were not given acknowledgement receipts when they went to submit such forms physically.

It directed the election officials to furnish an acknowledgement receipt to the booth level agents of the political parties, who submit the claim forms of excluded voters physically but clarified that such a receipt would not mean that the form is complete.

The top court, which was hearing a batch of pleas challenging the June 24 decision of the EC to conduct SIR exercise in Bihar, was told by Advocate Dwivedi that the EC has complied with earlier directions of the court in "letter and spirit".

He urged the court to give the EC a 15-day window to show there was no exclusion and said, "Give us some time, we will ensure that not one voter will fall through the cracks." "These political parties are making hue and cry but things are not that bad. Repose faith in us and give us some more time. Crores of documents are being filed. We will be able to show you there are no exclusions," Dwivedi said.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh, said the party welcomes the court directive.

"Democracy has survived a brutal assault from the Election Commission of India," he claimed.

"Today, the Supreme Court has laid down guardrails to make the revision more inclusive by including political parties in the process. So far the ECI's approach has been obstructionist and contrary to the interests of the voters. We welcome this judgment, especially because it gives us an enforceable right which the ECI cannot ignore," the Congress leader said.

"Today, the ECI stands totally exposed and discredited. Its G2 puppeteers stand decisively defeated." Congress general secretary in-charge organisation, K C Venugopal, also said his party welcomes the court decision mandating that the EC must accept Aadhaar as a valid proof of identity for voters left out of the SIR exercise.

“Further, its insistence that the ECI include political parties is a strong reprimand to the ECI that adopted an obstructionist and combative approach to the entire crisis so far,” he said on X.

“We hope this stern order by the Supreme Court finally breaks the ECI’s arrogance and it stops its nefarious attempts to steal the vote and evade accountability." The revision of the voters' list in Bihar--the first since 2003--has sparked a huge political row. The SIR's findings have reduced the total number of 7.9 crore registered voters in Bihar, from before the exercise, to 7.24 crore.

The EC informed the bench that around 85,000 individual voters who were excluded in draft rolls had submitted their claim forms and over 2 lakh new voters had come forward to register their names in the electoral rolls under the SIR exercise in the state.

"This is surprising. Voters are individually coming forward. Then what are these political parties doing? We are on the inaction of political parties. What are the 1.60 lakh booth level agents doing then? Why the distance between political workers and the local people. These political parties should come forward and assist the voters in submitting their forms," the bench said at the outset.

Dwivedi said that none of the political parties have filed any objections with regard to excluded voters and they are actually "whipping up fear among the voters for political interest." "This is an exercise for elections. Some party will win and form a government. Political parties can carry out their protests but they have to come forward and tell us our mistakes. Our Chief Election Commissioner has held a press conference recently and invited all the political parties to assist the commission in the exercise." Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Manoj Jha and Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for political leaders of eight opposition parties at the Centre, urged the bench that the deadline of September 1 for filing objections needs to be extended, if the BLAs of the political parties are to facilitate the process.

The bench said at present it is not extending the deadline and is only looking at the overwhelming response and if necessary, it may take a call on the next date of hearing.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing NGO 'Association for Democratic Reforms', said many persons are working as migrant workers outside the state and they may not be able to file the forms physically.PTI MNL ASK GSN MNL GSN GSN