The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Tuesday sought directions from the Supreme Court to the Election Commission to publish the name and details of around 65 lakh electors left out of the draft electoral rolls in Bihar.
The SC is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the EC’s June 24 order to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across the country, starting with Bihar. The court is scheduled to hear the matters on August 12.
In an application filed on Tuesday, the ADR, one of the petitioners, asked the court to direct the EC to publish the Assembly constituency and part or booth-wise list of names and details, including reasons (deceased, permanently shifted, duplicate or untraceable), of the around 65 lakh electors removed from the draft roll published on August 1.
As part of the SIR exercise, the EC had ordered that only those voters who submit enumeration forms by July 25 would be included in the draft roll. Out of the total 7.89 crore registered electors in the state, the EC said forms had been received from 7.24 crore, meaning the remaining 65 lakh were removed.
The EC said in a press note on July 25 that 22 lakh of these electors were found to have died, 35 lakh had either permanently migrated or could not be found and 7 lakh were registered in more than one place.
According to EC sources, the lists provided to the booth level agents (BLAs) of political parties on July 20 included the names, EPIC numbers and reasons for removal of electors from each booth.
The ADR, represented by Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan, also asked that the EC publish an Assembly constituency and part or booth-wise list of the electors who were included in the draft roll but were in the category of “not recommended” by the Booth Level Officers (BLOs), which means they could be removed from the final roll to be published on September 30.
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The petitioner said while the EC had provided a list of electors whose names had been deleted to the BLAs of a few political parties, the reasons for their removal were not mentioned in that list. It said that as per the lists provided to parties on July 20, when five days for submission of forms still remained, the reasons for uncollected forms was mentioned. But, in the lists provided on August 1, the column recording reason was not there.
“It is submitted that the list with names of 65 lakh deleted electors curiously fails to disclose the reason of non-submission of their enumeration forms, an information that the Election Commission evidently possesses. In other words, it fails to provide any explanation as to why these names were not included in the draft electoral rolls whether for reasons of having been deceased, permanently migrated out of Bihar, being untraceable or on the ground of duplicate entry,” ADR said.
In a departure from the annual special summary revision and pre-poll revisions, this time, the EC decided to prepare the rolls afresh. All those added to the rolls after January 1, 2003, when the last intensive revision was done, are required to submit documents establishing their eligibility, including citizenship. Those born after July 1, 1987 are required to submit date and/or place of birth proof for one or both parents.
