Bihar SIR: ADR moves SC seeking disclosure of voters omitted in draft rolls

New Delhi, Aug 5 The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), on Tuesday, filed an application before the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to release details of nearly 65 lakh voters whose names were omitted in the recently published draft electoral rolls in Bihar.

In a bid to enable political parties, general public and the petitioners to cross check and verify the draft electoral rolls, the plea demanded the ECI to release constituency and booth-wise list of names and details of voters whose enumeration forms were not submitted along with reasons for non-submission (like death, permanently shifted, duplicate, untraceable, etc.) against each name.

The plea also sought Assembly constituency and booth wise list of voters on the draft electoral rolls, whose enumeration forms have been "not recommended" by the Booth Level Officer.

The application cited the ECI's press statement dated July 25, which said that nearly 65 lakh voter names are likely to be deleted from the existing electoral rolls as a result of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.

"This shows that the ECI admittedly has details with names and other particulars of the nearly 22 lakh voters who are deceased, nearly 35 lakh voters who have either permanently migrated or couldn't be traced, nearly seven lakh voters who are registered at multiple locations and of nearly 1.2 lakh voters whose enumeration forms were yet to be received," the application said.

It added that the poll body's failure to disclose the specific reason for deletion against each of the 65 lakh names "appears to be an attempt to prevent the general public, including the petitioners, from verifying whether the individuals listed are indeed deceased or have permanently migrated".

Meanwhile, sources in the Bihar election office said that, contrary to the opposition parties' allegations and narrative that the SIR could disenfranchise a large number of voters, the Opposition has not pointed out even a single infirmity in the exercise.

Not a single claim or objection has been filed by any political party since August 1, the poll panel said.

The ECI last month concluded the enumeration phase of the SIR in Bihar, from June 24 to July 25.

More than 7.24 crore voters -- out of a total of 7.89 crore -- submitted their enumeration forms during the SIR exercise.

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor