Bihar SIR | ECI Must Disclose How Many Foreigners Were Deleted From Final Voters' List : Yogendra Yadav In Supreme Court

During the hearing on Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar's electoral rolls, activist Yogendra Yadav on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to direct the Election Commission of India (ECI) to disclose how many persons were found to be foreigners after the exercise.He said that the Supreme Court would be doing a "great service to the nation" by directing the ECI to disclose the number of persons whose names have been deleted on ground that they were not citizens.For context, while announcing the decision to conduct the SIR in June, the ECI had raised concerns about the possible presence of illegal migrants and non-citizens in the electoral rolls. Yadav today submitted that very few deletions were in the districts in the Seemanchal region, which were perceived to be having the presence of illegal migrants due to the proximity to international borders.Only 390 Foreigners?Countering the narrative about “foreigners” in the rolls, Yadav cited the Commission's own data:“Out of 7.4 crore people, only 1,087 objections were filed on citizenship grounds, of which 390 were sustained. That's the upper limit of people deleted for not being citizens. 796 people even filed applications against themselves saying 'I am a foreigner'! What kind of world are we living in?”"This Court may direct EC to disclose the number of persons whose names have been deleted on ground that they were not citizens. That would be great service to the country," he added.Yadav, appearing as a party-in-person, described the SIR as having caused the “largest-ever shrinkage of the electoral roll in the history of this country,” pointing out that 47 lakh names were deleted from the rolls. Using an analogy, he said: “The patient had a BP problem. The problem was cured. Next day you give shock treatment, now he has low BP. That's what has happened in Bihar.”Yadav submitted that the 47 lakh deletions were a “deliberately reduced impact” of the SIR due to the Supreme Court's interim intervention, such as allowing the use of Aadhaar cards. Because of the constant monitoring by the Supreme Court, the Booth Level Officers were also proactive in making people submit the forms.“When this Court started applying brakes, that's when the EC started doing things,” he said. Otherwise, the exclusion could have been as large as 2 crore voters, he surmised.Gender Imbalance Worsened After SIRYadav claimed that after the SIR, gender ratio in Bihar's voter rolls worsened.“The gender gap was improving. From 20 lakh it had come down to 7 lakh. After SIR, it became 16 lakh. Ten years of gains have been wiped out,” he said, adding that this pattern could be replicated wherever SIR is implemented.He urged the ECI to reveal the percentage of the 12 documents (including Aadhaar) which were used by the citizens to submit their enumeration forms. “Gibberish” Names, Duplicate EntriesQuestioning the accuracy of the final rolls, Yadav alleged that several voter names were “gibberish” and contained errors like blank entries or names appearing in Kannada and Tamil scripts in Bihar rolls.“If this is not gibberish, what is gibberish? There are 4.21 lakh cases of wrong house numbers and 5.24 lakh duplicate names. In some cases, there are 3,000 more names in the final list than in the draft,” he told the Bench, adding that he could provide lists for verification.He questioned whether the EC used any de-duplication software, remarking that even a basic AI program could identify duplicates by photo and name. "I don't know whether to laugh or cry. India is an IT hub,” he remarked.“One House, 100 Voters?”Yadav also alleged massive irregularities in household data, saying there were many entries with the same address.“One house with 100 or more names is definitely suspicious. There are 2,200 such houses with 4.5 lakh people..." he said.To this, Justice J. Bagchi quipped that “some purification has happened,” noting that the number was 2,900 before SIR, prompting Yadav to respond, “We should then compliment them.”“Persons objecting to their own entries saying they are dead"Yadav further alleged anomalies in the additions and objections process. Countering the ECI claim that the additions were of first time voters, he said that of the 21 lakh new entries, less than 20% were in the 18–19 age group, while over 40% were above 25 years, and over 6,000 were over 80 years.He claimed that 1.4 lakh people had filed objections to their own names, including 41 claiming to be dead, of whom 39 were deleted."Little less than 4 lakh objections were filed. Some records were uploaded. Would you believe out of 2.42 lakh people who filed objections, 1.40 lakh filed objections to their own name? Saying remove my name from roll. 41 of them are saying I am dead. EC has removed 39 of them from rolls. This is the state of affairs," he saidThe Court today passed an interim order to allow free legal aid for the persons exluded from the voters list to file appeals. The matters will be heard next on October 16.Case...

Bihar SIR | ECI Must Disclose How Many Foreigners Were Deleted From Final Voters' List : Yogendra Yadav In Supreme Court

Debby Jain

Yadav claimed that there were anomalous instances such as persons filing objections against their own names saying they are dead.

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