Plea filed in Supreme Court challenges revision of electoral rolls in Bihar
A writ petition was filed within the Supreme Courtroom on Saturday difficult the June 24 notification issued by the Election Fee of India (ECI), calling for a Particular Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
Filed by the Affiliation for Democratic Reforms, the plea submitted that the ECI notification violated Articles 14, 19, 21, 325, and 326 of the Structure, together with provisions of the Illustration of the Individuals Act, 1950 and Rule 21A of the Registration of Electors Guidelines, 1960.
As per the June 24 directive, voters who didn’t determine within the 2003 electoral rolls wanted to submit the required citizenship paperwork to show they had been real residents of Bihar.
The plea sought quashing of the notification on the grounds that it might arbitrarily and with out due course of disenfranchise lakhs of voters, undermining free and truthful elections, thus putting on the coronary heart of the essential construction of the Structure.
The stringent documentation necessities, absence of enough procedural safeguards and the unreasonably quick timeline for conducting SIR in Bihar had been prone to lead to wrongful deletion of real voters from the rolls, successfully denying them their proper to vote, it added.
Filed by means of Advocate Prashant Bhushan, the plea contended that the requirement below the SIR course of for voters to furnish paperwork not solely to show their very own citizenship but in addition that of their mother and father violated Article 326. Failing to satisfy these necessities might result in their names being excluded from the draft electoral roll and even eliminated altogether.
By excluding widespread identification paperwork like Aadhaar and ration playing cards, the method disproportionately impacted marginalised communities and the poor, making them extra vulnerable to being unnoticed, it added.
The petition claimed that by issuing this order, ECI had shifted the duty of proving eligibility to be on the electoral rolls from the State to particular person residents.
The Fee has set an unreasonable and impractical timeline for finishing up the SIR in Bihar, particularly given its proximity to the state elections scheduled for November 2025.
There have been lakhs of residents whose names weren’t on the 2003 electoral rolls and who lacked the paperwork demanded below the SIR order. Whereas some could possibly receive these paperwork, the quick deadline prescribed by the directive might stop them from doing so in time, it famous.
Calling Bihar as a state marked by excessive ranges of poverty and migration, the plea submitted that the state had a big inhabitants with out entry to important paperwork like start certificates or data of their mother and father.
The plea claimed that the SIR course of had already begun within the state.
If the June 24 notification was not quashed, it might deprive greater than three crore voters, particularly these from marginalised teams similar to SCs, STs and migrant employees, of their proper to vote, it added.
