Cong hails SC directive on Bihar's SIR, says ECI exposed, discredited

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Welcoming the Supreme Court directive on the Bihar SIR issue, the Congress on Friday said democracy has survived a "brutal assault" from the Election Commission of India (ECI) and claimed that the poll body stands "totally exposed and discredited".

The opposition party said the Supreme Court has laid down guardrails to make the revision more inclusive by including political parties in the process, and alleged that so far, the ECI's approach has been "obstructionist and contrary to the interests of the voters".

The Congress' assertion came after the Supreme Court directed the ECI to allow excluded voters to submit claims through online mode besides making physical submissions in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise of electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi allowed claim forms to be submitted along with Aadhaar card number and any one of the 11 acceptable documents in the SIR.

Expressing surprise over political parties not coming forward in filing objections related to 65 lakh excluded voters, the top court directed the chief electoral officer of Bihar to implead them in the court proceedings.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the party welcomes the Supreme Court directive on the Bihar SIR issue.

"Democracy has survived a brutal assault from the Election Commission of India (ECI)," he claimed.

On August 14th, the Supreme Court had intervened to set aside the ECI's decision to withhold the list of deleted voters, he said on X.

The Supreme Court had directed that the list of deleted voters must be published along with the reasons for such deletions, he pointed out.

On August 14th, the Supreme Court had also directed the ECI to accept Aadhar cards as proof of identity for those deleted, Ramesh said, adding that today it reaffirmed Aadhar as a valid ID that the ECI must accept.

"Today, the Supreme Court has laid down guardrails to make the revision more inclusive by including political parties in the process. So far the ECI's approach has been obstructionist and contrary to the interests of the voters. We welcome this judgment especially because it gives us an enforceable right which the ECI cannot ignore," the Congress leaders said.

"Today, the ECI stands totally exposed and discredited. Its G2 puppeteers stand decisively defeated," Ramesh said.

The bench said, "All the political parties shall file the status report by the next date of hearing on the claim form they had facilitated in filing by excluded voters."  The bench directed the election officials to furnish an acknowledgement receipt to the booth level agents of the political parties, who submit the claim forms of excluded voters physically.

Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the poll panel, urged the court to give the ECI a 15-day window to show there was no exclusion.