The Supreme Court, as reported by Live Law, has adjourned the hearing of the petitions challenging the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision of Bihar electoral rolls to November 4.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan urged the bench led by Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi to direct the ECI to publish a list of all the names added and deleted in making the final list.
“We have no doubt that they will fulfill their responsibility…they are bound to publish…we are not closing the matter,” Justice Kant said, and Live Law reported.
“They have not disclosed the complete list of new deletions of electors on draft rolls but not on final rolls…what are the new deletions not disclosed…tomorrow and the 20th they will freeze the final roll…unfortunately, they have not been putting out the final roll on their website. That needs to be done immediately,” Justice Bhushan said, and Live Law reported.
“Let’s see what they publish. Suppose the final list gives an indication of who was added, deleted…there are some typographical mistakes…as Mr. Yadav pointed out…we expect them to look into these things as a responsible authority and come out with remedial measures,” Justice Kant said.
On October 9, the Court issued an interim order mandating the provision of free legal aid to individuals excluded from the final voters’ list, enabling them to appeal their omission. During the proceedings, activist Yogendra Yadav urged the Court to direct the Election Commission of India (ECI) to disclose how many people were officially identified as foreigners through the process. Yadav also raised serious concerns about widespread irregularities in household data collection and questioned the accuracy of the final electoral rolls, claiming that the Standardization of Information Records (SIR) exercise resulted in the “largest-ever shrinkage of electoral rolls in the country’s history.”
