The Supreme Court grilled petitioners challenging the ‘special intensive revision’ of voter lists before the Bihar election.
There is ‘too much passion with little reason’ in petitioners’ arguments, Justice Joymalya Bagchi said, as he questioned the lack of appeals by people allegedly wrongfully struck off the roll.
However, the court also said that regardless of the outcome of these proceedings, it is imperative to ‘ensure right to appeal to persons stated to have been excluded from final list’. The court therefore directed the state’s Legal Services Authority to offer free aid in this instance.
“They will collect information with reference to persons who have been excluded from the final list… offer services to draft appeals and free legal aid counsel,” the Supreme Court said.
Petitioners had claimed that lakhs of excluded voters – around 3.66 lakh – have been left unable to file appeals against exclusion because the Election Commission has not formally notified of removal from the voter list, forcing manual cross-checks in each case.
They have argued this is a lapse in protocol by the poll body.
“They are not giving (details) of persons removed from the draft list… with all the technology they have. As a result, we have to spend 100s of hours going through,” advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the Association of Democratic Reforms, one of the petitioners, said.
The petitioners ultimately presented in the court, as sought in the last hearing on Tuesday, around 100 people who said they had been removed from the list but not given notification.
The poll body, however, has insisted every excluded individual has been served notice. It also disputed the authenticity of the affidavit filed by the petitioners, with details of the 100 persons who claimed to have not been given reasons for exclusion from the Bihar voter list.
It also disputed the authenticity of the affidavit filed by the petitioners, with details of the 100 persons who claimed to have not been given reasons for exclusion from the Bihar voter list.
The EC sought time to cross-verify the details, to which it was pointed out that voter rolls will freeze on October 17, the last date for filing of nominations, before voting begins November 6.
To concerns about timelines for appeals, Justice Surya Kant said, “We will see to that… if timelines are not there, we can fix them”, as the court also assured petitioners of support in case ‘appeals are dismissed with cryptic, one-line orders’. “We re-assure you…” the court said.