Mahua Moitra Moves Supreme Court Against Bihar Voter Verification Drive; Says Exercise Presumes Ineligibility And Risks Mass Disenfranchisement

The petition, filed by means of Advocate on File Neha Rathi, states that the revised process imposes an impermissible burden on current voters, lots of whom have voted in prior elections, to show their eligibility by means of paperwork establishing their very own or their dad and mom’ citizenship. It says that the order can result in large-scale disenfranchisement of eligible voters within the nation, thereby undermining democracy and free and honest elections.

The petition states, “The impugned SIR order requires the inclusion or retention of a voter’s identify within the electoral roll upon manufacturing of citizenship paperwork, together with proof of citizenship of both or each the dad and mom, failing which the voter is in danger of exclusion.”

It’s additional contended that this documentary requirement introduces “extraneous {qualifications}” that aren’t contemplated beneath the Structure or the Illustration of Individuals Act, and is thus extremely vires Article 326.

The petition alleges that the order is procedurally and substantively invalid, because it bypasses the statutory mechanism prescribed beneath Rule 21A of the Registration of Electors Guidelines, 1960, and Type 7 learn with Rule 13, which alone governs deletions and objections within the electoral roll. “It’s settled regulation that when a regulation requires a selected factor to be completed in a selected method, it must be completed in that method alone or by no means. ECI’s order dated 24.06.2025 is against the law because it presumes ineligibility of a voter except in any other case proved by the use of offering paperwork (from a restricted listing of 11 paperwork) for self in addition to paperwork of mom or father or each”, it reads.

It’s identified that Bihar has already undergone a Particular Abstract Revision (SSR) of the electoral rolls from October 2024 to January 2025, with closing publication on January 6, 2025. The resolution to conduct one other spherical of verification by means of a door-to-door enumeration drive in a poll-bound state is described as “unjustified and unreasonable.”

The petition refers to paragraph 13 of the ECI’s directive, which reads, “In case Enumeration Type shouldn’t be submitted earlier than July 25, 2025, the identify of the elector can’t be included in the draft rolls.”

It additional states that this provision successfully locations the burden of proof on the voter and converts a verification train right into a presumptive exclusion regime.

It’s averred within the petition that the ECI has didn’t justify why generally used id paperwork corresponding to Aadhaar and ration playing cards have been excluded. It states, “The stated order arbitrarily excludes generally accepted id paperwork corresponding to Aadhaar and ration playing cards from the listing of accepted paperwork thereby placing enormous burden on the voters who’re at an enormous danger of getting disenfranchised.”

It additional submits that the order creates a discriminatory presumption in favour of those that appeared within the 2003 Electoral Roll, or whose dad and mom did, whereas inserting others, notably first-time voters and migrants, at an obstacle.

Highlighting the size of potential impression, the petition cites subject experiences and information protection suggesting that weak populations, together with Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, minorities, and migrant employees, are particularly more likely to be affected. One information excerpt annexed to the petition reads, “…Again house, a greying Farukh says none of his members of the family has obtained the brand new enrolment varieties, nor do they know what to do subsequent. “That is the newest approach to trouble individuals… Is that this not NRC? The reference is to the BJP-led Central authorities’s plans for a Nationwide Register of Residents. As soon as linked to the Citizenship (Modification) Act by the authorities, resulting in protests in 2019, the NRC has since been placed on the backburner. Nevertheless, amid the EC’s new — and sudden — requirement that each one voters, new and current, present paperwork which are akin to giving citizenship proof, a piece of minorities ask if that is “NRC by the backdoor.”

The plea contends that the SIR framework resembles the construction and penalties of the Nationwide Register of Residents (NRC), which has been extensively critiqued for its exclusionary impression.

The petition additional contends that the requirement to re-prove eligibility, even after having voted in prior elections, is irrational, stating, “As a result of the SIR in as far as it requires voters to once more show their eligibility as voters by means of a set of paperwork is absurd, since on the premise of their current eligibility most current voters have already voted a number of instances in state in addition to common elections.”

The petition refers back to the Supreme Courtroom’s resolution in P.T. Rajan v. T.P.M. Sahir (2003), the place the Courtroom noticed that the fitting to vote, although statutory, is protected beneath Article 326 and can’t be made contingent upon necessities not contemplated by statute.

The Petition additionally asserts that experiences {that a} comparable verification drive is proposed to start in West Bengal from August 1, 2025, which if not instantly stayed, the mechanism launched by means of the June 24 order could unfold to different states and irreparably impression electoral participation.

The petition prays for a keep on the implementation of the SIR in Bihar and seeks a course restraining the ECI from issuing comparable orders in different states, and states, “If the impugned order shouldn’t be put aside, very important constitutional ensures beneath Articles 14, 19(1)(a), 21, 325, and 326 stand to be violated.”