SC calls Bihar electoral roll revision ‘voter friendly’, backs 11 document option

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that the 11 documents accepted for Bihar’s special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll, compared to seven in the previous summary revision, made the exercise “voter-friendly.”

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, hearing pleas against the Election Commission’s June 24 decision to conduct the SIR in poll-bound Bihar, noted that while petitioners argued the non-acceptance of Aadhaar was exclusionary, the larger list of documents was “actually inclusionary.”

Electors are required to submit any one of the 11 approved documents. Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, for the petitioners, countered that despite the higher number, coverage was poor, citing that passports were held by only 1–2 per cent of the population and Bihar does not issue permanent resident certificates.

The bench responded that 36 lakh passport holders indicated “good coverage” and said the list was prepared with input from government departments to ensure maximum reach.

Meanwhile, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, also appearing for the petitioners, said that the ECI can never conduct such an exercise since inception and it is being done for the first time in history and if allowed to happen only God knows where it will end.

However, dismissing his statement, the court said that there is a need for a revision. "There is bound to be revision," the top court said, "otherwise, how will the poll panel delete the names of those who are dead, migrated or shifted to other constituencies?"

The bench went on to tell Sankaranarayanan that the ECI had residual power to conduct such an exercise as it deemed fit.

It referred to Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People's Act (RP Act), which says "the Election Commission may at any time, for reasons to be recorded, direct a special revision of the electoral roll for any constituency or part of a constituency in such manner as it may think fit."

Justice Bagchi further asked Sankaranarayanan, "When the primary legislation says 'in such manner as deemed fit' but the subordinate legislation does not... will it not give a residual discretion to ECI to dovetail the procedure not completely in ignorance of rules but some more additives than what the rules prescribe to deal with the peculiar requirement of a special revision?"

The residuary power of the ECI flows from Article 324 of the Constitution, and the RP Act mentions both summary revision and special revision, and the ECI in the instant case has only added the word "intensive", that's all, the judge noted.

The hearing will continue on Thursday.

On August 12, the court upheld the EC’s stand not to accept Aadhaar or voter cards as conclusive proof of citizenship for the SIR, stressing that inclusion or exclusion from the rolls lies within the EC’s remit. It also noted the EC’s claim that about 6.5 crore of Bihar’s 7.9 crore voters did not need to submit documents as their names or their parents’ names appeared in the 2003 rolls.
(With PTI inputs)