MP Mahua Moitra moves Supreme Court against revision of electoral rolls in Bihar
All India Trinamool Congress chief and Member of Parliament Mahua Moitra has filed a petition within the Supreme Courtroom looking for quashing of the Election Fee of India’s June 24 notification, which known as for Particular Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
The petition sought quashing of the ECI notification on the grounds that it violated Articles 14, 19(1)(a), 21, 325, 326 of the Structure, together with provisions of the Illustration of Folks Act, 1950 and the Registration of Electors Guidelines, 1960.
It additional prayed for instructions to the ECI to not difficulty comparable orders for SIR of electoral rolls in different states of the nation because it may result in large-scale disenfranchisement of eligible voters and undermine the democracy in addition to conduct of free & honest elections within the nation.
The plea famous that for the very first time within the nation, the Fee was conducting such an train, whereby the electors whose names had been already there in electoral rolls and who had already voted a number of occasions, had been being requested to show their eligibility.
The ECI notification required 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 was susceptible to exclusion.
This requirement was extremely vires Article 326 and launched extraneous {qualifications} not contemplated by the Structure or the RP Act 1950, it added.
The petitioner argued that the ECI order arbitrarily excluded the generally accepted identification paperwork corresponding to Aadhaar and ration playing cards from the record of accepted paperwork, placing enormous burden on the voters who had been at an enormous danger of getting disenfranchised.
Citing studies from Bihar, she mentioned that lakhs of residents throughout rural and marginalised areas in Bihar had been at imminent danger of disenfranchisement attributable to these stringent and unreasonable necessities.
As per the plea, the order disproportionately affected the economically & socially weak communities and resembled the construction and penalties of the Nationwide Register of Residents (NRC), which had been extensively critiqued.
Citing Paragraph 13 of the notification, the petitioner mentioned it expressly mandated that the failure to submit contemporary enumeration varieties by July 25, 2025 would lead to exclusion from the draft roll, with out enough procedural safety.
It additional known as as absurd, the requirement for the voters to show their eligibility via a set of paperwork. On the idea of their present eligibility, most present voters have already exercised their franchise a number of occasions in state in addition to common elections, it added.
The plea submitted that the unreasonable timeline successfully foreclosed the potential of compliance for individuals who might in any other case be capable of procure the mandatory paperwork.
The petitioner revealed that she had data that the mentioned train was said to be replicated in West Bengal from August 2025, for which directions have already been given to EROs.
Moitra, MP from Krishnanagar constituency in West Bengal, has change into the third petitioner to problem the ECI order. Earlier, NGO Affiliation for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and psephologist Yogendra Yadav moved the Apex Courtroom in opposition to the notification.
