Manan Kumar / NEW DELHI
The directions given by the Supreme Court’s two-judge bench on Thursday have come as a big relief to the 11 petitioners who had challenged the Election Commission of India’s bizarre decision to undertake a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar just three months before the impending assembly elections.
After several hours of extensive arguments, the bench of Justice Suryakant and Justice Joymalaya Bagchi, not only set aside the objections raised by ECI’s lawyer Rakesh Dwivedi in an interim order, but also gave six specific pointers to the ECI to follow.
One, to display the list of 65 lakhs (approx) voters whose names appeared in the voter list as of 2025 but have not been included in the draft list on the websites of every District Electoral Officer. The bench asked the EC to provide the information booth-wise, which could also be accessed with the help of the EPIC number of the voters. And, also to disclose the reason for non-inclusion in the draft roll.
Two, to give wide publicity to this decision in vernacular newspapers with wide circulation in Bihar, broadcast and telecast it on TV and radio channels, and also on the social media site, if any.
Three, the booth-wise list of 65 lakh voters shall also be displayed on the notice board by each Booth Level Officer in their respective offices of the Block Development/Panchayat, enabling the public to have manual access to the list along with the reasons for non-inclusion.
Four, to allow the aggrieved persons to submit their claims along with a copy of the Aadhaar card.
Five, a soft copy of district-wise persons not included in the draft rolls to be given to the State Election Officers and to be published on the website of the Chief Electoral Officer, Bihar.
Six, to provide a website list of voters that can be searched with the help of the EPIC (Electors Photo Identity Card) number.
Hailing the Apex Court’s decision, Prashant Bhushan, the lawyer of the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), one of the key petitioners, said, “Kudos to the SC for ordering the ECI to show greater transparency by putting on their website the names of 65 L people removed from the electoral roll of Bihar in this SIR. ECI is also directed to display the reasons for deletion.”
Yogendra Yadav, who too joined the list of petitions, and was praised by the judges putting across his arguments with great clarity, also commended the Apex Court for stopping Vote Bandi (vote ban).
Praising the Supreme Court’s decision as “clear, firm and bold” and “a ray of hope” the General Secretary in-charge Communication of Congress, Jairam Ramesh, described it as the first big step.
Despite securing seemingly an agreeable order, the Congress is keeping its ante up and is going ahead with its plans to hold Vote Adhikar Yatra from August 17. This time the Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi has decided on a 16 day Yatra traversing 1300 kilometres.
The BJP largely kept a distance from the Court’s decision. However, BJP president J P Nadda, described the order a cause of disappointment for the Congress party for not being able to stop SIR in Bihar.