Former Bihar MLA Mujahid Alam Moves Supreme Court Against ECI Order For Revision Of State Electoral Rolls Ahead Of Assembly Elections

Former Bihar MLA Mujahid Alam has approached the Supreme Court docket difficult the Election Fee of India’s resolution to carry a “Particular Intensive Revision” of electoral rolls in Bihar forward of the state’s 18th Meeting elections.

He contends that the ECI order is violative of Articles 14, 21, 325 and 326 of the Structure and carries a risk of disenfranchisement of Bihar voters, with an additional potential of getting used as a software for disproportionately impacting Muslim, Dalit and poor migrant communities.

Pursuant to an urgent mentioning in the present day earlier than the highest Court docket, sure different petitions difficult the ECI’s resolution to conduct a “Particular Intensive Revision” of the electoral rolls in Bihar had been listed for listening to on July 10.

Within the petition filed by Mujahid Alam, it’s claimed that majority voters of Kochadham constituency are out-migrants and it might be unbelievable for them to return to the state for submission of enumeration types.

“out of the entire variety of voters i.e. 2,73,000 within the Kochadhaman Meeting Constituency; 60% of male voters are out-migrants, having relocated to different States for gainful employment. It’s extremely unbelievable/unrealistic to count on such out-migrants to return to the State to submit the enumeration kind. These out-migrants face a risk of computerized deletion of their names on non-submission of enumeration types inside the stipulated thirty days.”

Moreover the above, the plea highlights monsoon troubles that may influence Bihar voters within the coming months and make submission of required paperwork extremely troublesome.

“The continuing SIR course of will not be solely rushed and poorly timed, however failed to think about that a lot of the Kochadhaman Meeting Constituency within the State of Bihar, suffers from monsoon, and flash floods through the months of July to October yearly, making the method of submission of enumeration types and subsequent dealing of claims/objections extremely not possible. This motion severely impinges on the ‘Proper to Vote’ enshrined beneath Article 326 of the Structure.”

Like RJD MP Manoj Jha, the previous MLA factors out points with the ECI’s demand of 11 paperwork from the proposed voters. It’s highlighted that generally held IDs like Aadhaar card, Ration card and MNREGA job card have been excluded from the listing.

Additional, the petition underscores the “monumental hole” between the variety of enumeration types distributed, collected and uploaded by ECI which in line with the previous MLA renders the SIR schedule unachievable within the subsequent 20 days.

“as per the current statistics, whereas the Election Fee has distributed enumeration types to round 94% of the potential voters, it has managed to gather solely 14% of them within the first 10 days of the SIR course of. Moreover, there’s a monumental hole within the variety of types which have been uploaded, with round 24 lakhs of 1.12 being uploaded.”

Mujahid Alam is an ex-JDU member and was earlier an MLA from Kochadhaman constituency in Bihar. Presently, he’s not related to any political celebration.

The petition is filed via AoR Ujjwal Singh.

Up to now, 4 pleas have been filed difficult the ECI’s resolution for revision of electoral rolls in Bihar. These embody petitions filed by RJD MP Manoj Jha; the Association for Democratic Reforms, PUCL, activist Yogendra Yadav and Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra.

Case Title: Mujahid Alam v. Election Fee of India and One other