Bihar SIR row 'largely a trust deficit issue', says Supreme Court

Petitioners told the SC that the EC's Bihar voter roll revision reverses the burden of proof of citizenship and could exclude lakhs of eligible voters from electoral rolls

The Supreme Court on Tuesday called the Bihar special intensive revision (SIR) exercise row “largely a trust deficit issue” as the Election Commission (EC) claimed that roughly 6.5 crore people of the total 7.9 crore voting population of the state did not have to file any documents for themselves or their parents featured in the 2003 electoral roll.

 

The apex court is hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the EC's June 24 directive, ordering SIR of Bihar electoral roll. The directive requires voters not listed in the 2003 electoral roll to submit documents proving their citizenship. Those born after December 2004 must also furnish the citizenship documents of both parents, with additional requirements if a parent is a foreign national.

 

“If out of 7.9 crore voters, 7.24 crore responded to SIR, it demolishes the theory of one crore voters missing or disenfranchised," the bench told senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for petitioner and RJD leader Manoj Jha.

 

Sibal contended that despite the residents possessing Aadhaar cards, ration cards and electoral photo identity cards (EPICs), officials refused to accept the documents.

 

Most of the population of Bihar, Sibal also argued, do not possess the documents specified as acceptable by the EC.

 

The Supreme Court, however, remarked that the possibility of nobody possessing these documents was "a very sweeping argument".

 

"It is a very sweeping statement that in Bihar nobody has the documents. If this happens in Bihar, then what will happen in other parts of the country," the top court asked.

 

Senior Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), one of the petitioners, said that the EC had not published a list of names of the 65 lakh persons who have been deleted from the draft roll. Further, the EC had also not specified who the dead or migrated persons are, he said.

 

Meanwhile, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for one of the petitioners, argued that the EC cannot place the burden of proof of citizenship on the voters in the guise of revising the electoral rolls.

 

"Today, in the guise of methodology of revising the roll, they are reversing the burden of proof of citizenship, saying prove your citizenship, that too in two-and-a-half months," Singhvi said.

 

Political activist Yogendra Yadav, who addressed the court in person, questioned the data given by the poll panel and said instead of 7.9 crore voters, there was a total adult population of 8.18 crore and the design of SIR exercise was to delete the voters.

 

"They (EC) were not able to find any individual whose name was added and booth level officers visited house to house for deletion of names," Yadav said, calling it a case of "total disenfranchisement".

 

The hearing will continue on Wednesday.

 

In the previous hearings, the court had said that the EC is a constitutional authority and it is deemed to act in accordance with law, but in case of mass exclusion of voters, the court would have to step in.

 

“The Election Commission of India, being a constitutional authority, is deemed to act in accordance with the law. If any wrongdoing is done, you bring it to the notice of the court. We will hear you,” the court had told the petitioners.

 

The court had observed that the petitions raised “an important question, which goes to the very root of the functioning of the democracy in the country — the right to vote”.