Furnish details of 3.66 lakh excluded voters, SC tells EC

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Election Commission to furnish details of 3.66 lakh voters excluded from the final voter list published on September 30 after the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar where the Assembly elections are to be held on November 6 and 11.

The order came from a Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi after the petitioners, including RJD, Congress and CPM leaders, alleged that the poll panel did not give any notice to the deleted voters for their exclusion from the final electoral rolls.

The petitioners demanded that the poll panel must publish the list of names of 3.66 lakh voters additionally deleted from the final list as also the names of the 21 lakh voters added to it.

While hearing petitions challenging the June 24 EC notification for the SIR in poll-bound Bihar, the Bench noted that there was some confusion if voters added to the final electoral list were from the list of voters who were previously deleted from the draft list or they were totally new names.

Everyone had the draft electoral roll and the final list had also been published on September 30, so the required data could be furnished through a comparative analysis, it said.

The top court directed the EC to submit whatever information it had on the excluded voters by October 9, the next date of hearing. On behalf of the EC, senior counsel Rakesh Dwivedi said most of the names added to the final list after the publication of the draft list were of new voters and that no complaint/appeal had been filed by any excluded voter. “Only politicians and an NGO sitting in Delhi are raising the issue and the petitioners have not challenged the final (voter) list published on September 30,” Dwivedi told the Bench.

Senior counsel AM Singhvi, representing one of the petitioners, said, “Persons who are deleted do not get notice that they are deleted. They don’t get the reasons. There is no question of appeal because no one knows. The least they can do is to inform...”

However, Dwivedi contested Singhvi’s submission, saying the deleted persons had been given the orders.

The Bench said since it appeared from the number of electors in the final list that there’s an appreciation of numbers from the draft rolls, the identity of add-ons should be disclosed to avoid any confusion.

“You’d agree with us that the degree of transparency and access has improved in the electoral process. It appears from the data that there was a 65 lakh deletion in the draft list which you (EC) published, and we said whoever is dead or has moved is all right, but if you are deleting someone, please follow Rule 21 and the SOP,” the Bench told Dwivedi.

As the Bench said it could pass certain directions if any affected person approached the top court, advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the Association for Democratic Reforms, said, “I can bring 100...How many... your lordships want? I have already given one illustration. How many will come forward? There’s an en-mass violation.” He handed over the affidavit of an individual whose name was allegedly deleted.

“It should not look like a roving inquiry. If we are prima facie satisfied, we can pass orders,” the Bench said. The EC’s ‘draft electoral rolls’ in Bihar had enlisted 7.24 crore voters. However, the final electoral rolls published on September 30 after the SIR exercise had more than 7.43 crore voters.

Of the total 65 lakh voters removed from the draft electoral rolls, 22.34 lakh were dead and 36.28 lakh had permanently shifted or were absent while 7.01 lakh voters were enrolled at more than one place, the EC had said.

Next hearing on Oct 9

• The top court directed the EC to submit whatever information it had on the excluded voters by October 9, the next date of hearing

• The EC’s draft electoral rolls in Bihar had enlisted 7.24 crore voters. However, the final rolls published on September 30 after the SIR had over 7.43 crore voters