The Supreme Court on Wednesday observed that the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar appeared “voter friendly,” noting that electors could submit any one of 11 documents for inclusion, compared to just seven in the earlier summary revision.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi made the remarks while hearing multiple pleas challenging the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) June 24 decision to conduct SIR in the poll-bound state.
“The number of documents in summary revision conducted earlier in the state was seven and in SIR it is 11, which shows it is voter friendly. We understand your arguments that non-acceptance of Aadhaar is exclusionary but a high number of documents is actually inclusionary,” the bench said.
The court noted that electors were required to produce only one of the listed 11 documents to prove eligibility.
Petitioners Flag Low Coverage
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the petitioners, disagreed with the court’s assessment. He argued that while the number of documents had increased, their availability among Bihar’s population was limited.
He pointed out that passports, one of the accepted documents, were held by only one to two percent of people in the state and that Bihar had no system for issuing permanent resident certificates.
“If we see the availability of documents with the population in Bihar, it can be seen the coverage is very low,” Singhvi submitted.
In response, the bench said that coverage of 36 lakh passport holders “appears to be good” and noted that such lists are usually prepared after consulting various government departments to maximise reach.
Earlier Court Observations
On August 12, the court had backed the ECI’s decision to exclude Aadhaar and voter ID cards as conclusive proof of citizenship for the SIR, stating that inclusion or exclusion from electoral rolls fell within the Commission’s domain.
The bench had also remarked that the ongoing row over the revision exercise was “largely a trust deficit issue,” with the ECI claiming that around 6.5 crore of Bihar’s 7.9 crore voters did not need to submit any documents because they or their parents were already listed in the 2003 rolls.
