The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to provide detailed information by August 9 on approximately 65 lakh voters excluded from Bihar’s draft electoral rolls, as part of the controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise. A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan, and N Kotiswar Singh instructed the ECI’s counsel to share the data already provided to political parties with the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which has challenged the ECI’s June 24 SIR order.

ADR’s advocate, Prashant Bhushan, argued that while some political parties received a list of deleted voters, the ECI failed to specify reasons for exclusions, such as death, migration, or duplicate entries. The bench emphasized that it would scrutinize every affected voter’s case, stating, “You (ECI) file a reply by Saturday, and let Mr. Bhushan look at it.” Bhushan also claimed that 75 percent of voters who submitted enumeration forms lacked the required 11 supporting documents, with their inclusion based solely on Booth Level Officer recommendations.

The court, which began hearing related petitions on August 12, previously urged the ECI on July 29 to accept Aadhaar and voter ID cards, stressing “en masse inclusion” over exclusion. The draft rolls, published on August 1, listed 7.24 crore voters, down from 7.89 crore, with 22.34 lakh marked deceased, 36.28 lakh as migrated or untraceable, and 7.01 lakh as duplicate entries. The ECI insists the SIR enhances electoral purity by removing ineligible voters.

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With the claims and objections phase open until September 1, the final rolls are set for September 30, amid opposition allegations of voter disenfranchisement ahead of Bihar’s assembly elections.

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