The pleas were filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms, RJD, TMC, PUCL, and TMC MP Mahua Moitra against the EC order. The petition flagged the possible exclusion of more than three crore voters from voting in Bihar elections.
Senior lawyers Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi mentioned the pleas before the court flagged voter verification with a “squeezed timelime” could lead to lakhs of voters being disenfranchised. The pleas flagged how verification of 8 crore voters in Bihar is impossible before the state elections.
The pleas said special intensive revision is violative of constitutional rights and needs to be set aside by the court. The order can arbitrarily and without due process disenfranchise lakhs of voters and can lead to disrupting free and fair elections and democracy in the country, the plea mentioned.
It added that the order excludes Aadhaar and ration cards for verification, which further makes the marginalised and poor communities vulnerable to exclusion. As per the order, a voter is required to prove his/her citizenship and also the citizenship of his/her mother or father, failing which his/her name would not be added, the plea added.
As per the plea, the ECI has issued unreasonable and impractical timeline to conduct SIR in Bihar where elections are due in November 2025. Over three crore voters and more particularly from marginalised communities (such as SC, STs and migrant workers) could be excluded from voting, it said.
The controversy over the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar intensified as TMC MP Mahua Moitra, RJD’s Manoj Jha and several NGOs moved the apex court seeking quashing of the EC’s order, which they claimed violated the Constitution.
The EC clarified that it has not changed its instructions on the revision process after several social media posts. The Congress and other INDIA bloc parties have been opposing the provision whereby voters whose names were included in the electoral roll after 2003 are required to submit documents related to birth.
According to the EC, the exercise was necessitated by rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths, and inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants.
The EC said it will scrupulously adhere to the constitutional and legal provisions as laid down in Article 326 of the Constitution and Section 16 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, in carrying out the revision.
