New Delhi, 22 Aug

The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to allow excluded voters to submit claims through online mode besides making physical submissions in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi allowed claim forms to be submitted along with Aadhaar card number and any one of the 11 acceptable documents in the SIR.

Expressing surprise over political parties not coming forward in filing objections related to 65 lakh excluded voters, the top court directed the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar to implead them in the court proceedings.

"All the political parties shall file the status report by the next date of hearing on the claim form they had facilitated in filing by excluded voters," the bench said as it posted the matter for 8 September. The bench directed the election officials to furnish an acknowledgement receipt to the booth level agents of the political parties, who submit the claim forms of excluded voters physically.

Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the poll panel, urged the court to give the ECI a 15-day window to show there was no exclusion. "The political parties are making hue and cry and things are not bad. Repose faith in us and give us some more time. We will be able to show you there are no exclusions," Dwivedi said.

The ECI informed the bench that around 85,000 individual voters who were excluded in draft rolls had submitted their claim forms and over 2 lakh new voters had come forward to register their names in the electoral rolls under the SIR exercise in the state.

On 14 August, the top court directed the poll panel to publish by 19 August details of the 65 lakh voters excluded from the draft electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar to enhance "transparency" in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters’ list and allow Aadhaar as an acceptable document for identity proof.

Observing that the EC should put at rest the “narrative being built” against it, the bench had also ordered that the details should include reasons for their non-inclusion during the ongoing SIR exercise. "Transparency will create voter confidence."

The revision of the voters’ list in Bihar – taking place for the first since 2003 - has sparked a huge political row. The SIR's findings have reduced the total number of 7.9 crore registered voters in Bihar, from before the exercise, to 7.24 crore.