Bihar SIR | Voters Excluded From Draft Rolls Can Submit Applications Online With Aadhaar Card : Supreme Court

In the Bihar SIR matter, the Supreme Court today ordered that the persons who are excluded from the draft electoral roll can submit their applications for inclusion through online mode and that physical submission of forms is not necessary.The Court further clarified that any of the eleven documents mentioned by the Election Commission of India or an Aadhaar card can be submitted along with the applications seeking inlcusion in the list.A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi also directed the 12 recognised political parties in the State of Bihar to instruct their Booth Level Agents to assist the persons in their respective booths for the submission of the forms. The Court impleaded all those recognised parties as respondents in the petitions, if they are not already petitioners in the matter.The Court also expressed surprise that although there are about 1.6 lakh Booth Level Agents of political parties, only two objections have come from them. However, some parties submitted that the officers were not acknowledging the objections given by the BLAs.."What we are surprised to see is that 1.6 lakh BLAs have so far filed only two objections. On the other hand, some political parties submitted that the BLAs are not being permitted to submit their objections," the Court noted.Addressing the concerns raised by some petitioners that the Booth Level Officers were not issuing acknowledgement receipts to the objections submitted by the Booth Level Agents, the Court directed the BLOs to acknowledge the receipt wherever physical forms are submitted.During the hearing, Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, for the Election Commission of India, told the Court that a compliance affidavit has been filed stating that the lists containing the names of voters excluded from the draft roll, including the reasons of exclusions, have been published on the websites and polling booths as directed by the Court on August 14. He added that the lists have been shared with the Booth Level Agents of the political parties as well.Dwivedi asserted that "no political party has filed a single objection (to deletion) till date." When Dwivedi said that no political party has come before the Court, Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Dr AM Singhvi countered. Sibal said that he was representing the RJD MP Manoj Jha from the main opposition party in Bihar. Singhvi said that he was appearing in a petition jointly filed by the representatives INC, CPI(M), CPI(M-L) Liberation, CPI, NCP etc.Dwivedi submitted that over 2 lakh forms have been filed by new voters for inclusion in the list. None of the 12 recognised political parties in the State have given any objections. "They are only whipping up fear for their political interests," he said."It is the duty of the political parties to come forward and assist the Election Commission in completing this exercise. But they are not coopearting," Dwivedi said.Advocate Prashant Bhushan, for the Association for Democratic Reforms, said that many persons are working as migrant workers outside the State and they may not be able to file forms. Also, all political parties do not have Booth Level Agents in all constituencies. "Biggest opposition party is RJD. They have BLAs in only half of constituencies..." Bhushan said. The bench then suggested that it can order that any voter can submit forms for inclusion online along with their Aadhaar cards."Let them submit their application forms, be it with Aadhaar card or matriculation certificates," Justice Kant said. Dwivedi suggested waiting for some more time to see how many more people are submitting forms. "Crores are filing documents, all bogus stories being [circulated]. Please wait for some time...repose some trust in EC," he said.Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, for the Association for Democratic Reforms, said that the legality of the exercise itself must be decided. He claimed that despite the Court's order, the Booth Level Officers were not accepting Aadhaar as a standalone document. Advocate Vrinda Grover, for an organization of voters, said that even if an Aadhaar card is submitted, the officers were insisting on any of the 11 documents specified in the SIR order.Advocate Fauzia Shakil requested that the September 1 deadline to submit forms be extended, considering that the lists of excluded persons were published only on August 19. She also raised the concern that acknowledgement receipts were not being given to the forms given by the BLAs.The Court noted the statement of the ECI that if 1.6 lakh BLAs can assist in verifying at least 10 documents a day, 16 lakh verifications can be done a day, which means that the entire process can be completed within 4-5 days. To recap, the Court was dealing with a batch of petitions challenging ECI's special intensive revision of Bihar's electoral rolls ahead of the state's Assembly elections (scheduled in November). Between August 12-13, it heard submissions (read here and here) on behalf of the petitioners,...

Bihar SIR | Voters Excluded From Draft Rolls Can Submit Applications Online With Aadhaar Card : Supreme Court

Debby Jain

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