The Election Commission of India (ECI) has told the Supreme Court that it is not bound to publish names of 65 lakh people knocked off from Bihar’s draft electoral rolls as per law, adding that there would be no deletion of any voter’s name from the draft electoral roll without issuance of prior notice.
The Supreme Court had asked the EC to submit by Saturday, August 9, the details of more than 65 lakh electors excluded from the draft electoral rolls.
NGO ‘Association For Democratic Reforms’, which has challenged the poll body’s June 24 order directing for Special Intensive Revision (SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, has filed a fresh application seeking direction to publish names of around 65 lakh deleted voters with the mention whether they are dead, permanently migrated or not considered for any other reason.
In the additional affidavit filed in the apex court on Saturday, the poll body said, “It is submitted that the statutory framework does not require the respondent (EC) to prepare or share any separate list of names of people not included in the draft electoral rolls, or publish the reasons for non-inclusion of anyone in the draft electoral rolls for any reason”.
“But, on account of human involvement in execution of this exercise of scale, there is always a possibility that an exclusion or inclusion might surface due to inadvertence or error,” EC said.