The Election Commission told the Supreme Court that Bihar’s last voter list has been released. The petitioner sought a list of 21 lakhs added and 3.66 lakhs removed. ECI said those who were removed were informed. The court said that the affected people can appeal.
New Delhi: The Election Commission told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the final voter list has been released after the recent special intensive amendment (SIR) in Bihar. Most of the names added to the final list are new voters and some are also old voters. The bench of Justices Suryakant and Jayamalya Bagchi said- there was some confusion about the fact that voters added to the final voter list are among those who were removed from the first draft list or are a completely new names.
What did the petitioner’s lawyer Prashant Bhushan say…
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner ‘Association for Democratic Reforms’, demanded that the Election Commission should release the list of names of 3.66 lakh voters that were additionally removed from the final list and also included the names of 21 lakh voters who were included. He said that ECI has not given the reason for the removal of voters and has not released a list of additional 3.66 lakh voters removed after the draft list is released.
Election Commission lawyer Rakesh Dwivedi told the court.
ECI lawyer Rakesh Dwivedi said- people whose names have been removed have been ordered. No affected or removed voter has come to court nor has any appeal, and only the leaders sitting in Delhi and NGOs are raising this issue.
The bench said, if anyone can give a list of such voters out of these 3.66 lakh voters who have not received orders … then we will instruct EC to order them. Everyone has the right to appeal. The Supreme Court has now decided to hear the case on Thursday. The Supreme Court was hearing several petitions challenging the Election Commission’s move to get the SIR of the voter list in Bihar.