Bihar SIR: Supreme Court Says Aadhaar Can’t Establish Citizenship, Backs EC Stand

The Supreme Court on Monday underscored that decisions on including or excluding citizens and non-citizens from electoral rolls lie within the jurisdiction of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

During the hearing, Justice Surya Kant, as quoted by Bar and Bench, remarked, “Are petitioners suggesting that the Aadhaar card is proof of citizenship? They are not saying it is not a measure… the Aadhaar Act itself makes this clear.”

He further said, “The Election Commission is correct in stating that Aadhaar cannot be treated as conclusive proof of citizenship; it must be verified. Refer to Section 9 of the Aadhaar Act.”

However, the bench rejected arguments that residents of Bihar largely lack the documents sought by the ECI for verification during the Special Summary Revision (SSR) of electoral Determining citizenship is not the Election Commission’s role, senior advocate AM Singhvi told the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The top court was hearing the pleas challenging Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision of Bihar’s electoral rolls ahead of the state’s November assembly elections. 

Before a bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, Singhvi said that if crores of Bihar’s people were already on the electoral roll, the poll body should not require them to produce documents to prove citizenship all over again, because this would mean presumptive exclusion unless the ECI verifies the documents. 

“According to the ECI, therefore, you are presumably not a citizen unless you show the documents”, he added. 

The bench also heard senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for RJD leader Manoj Jha, and claimed that while in one constituency the poll panel claimed 12 people were dead, they were found alive whereas in another instance alive persons were declared dead 

Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Election Commission, said the exercise of such a nature was "bound to have some defects here and there" and to claim that dead persons were declared alive and alive as dead could always be corrected as it was only a draft roll.

The bench told the poll panel to "be ready" with facts and figures for it would be questioned over the number of voters before the exercise commenced; number of dead before and now aside from other relevant details reported PTI.

On July 29, terming the election commission a constitutional authority deemed to act in accordance with law, the top court said it will step in immediately if there is "mass exclusion" in the SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar.

The draft roll was published on August 1 and the final roll is scheduled to be published on September 30 amid opposition claims that the ongoing exercise will deprive crores of eligible citizens from their right to vote.

On July 10, the top court asked the EC to consider Aadhaar, voter ID and ration cards as valid documents as it allowed the poll panel to continue with its exercise in Bihar.

The EC affidavit has justified its ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, saying it adds to the purity of the election by "weeding out ineligible persons" from the electoral rolls.

Beside RJD MP Jha and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress' K C Venugopal, Supriya Sule from the Sharad Pawar NCP faction, D Raja from Communist Party of India, Harinder Singh Malik from Samajwadi Party, Arvind Sawant from Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), Sarfraz Ahmed from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Dipankar Bhattacharya of CPI (ML) have jointly moved the top court challenging the June 24 decision of the election commission reported PTI

Several other civil society organisations like PUCL, NGO Association of Democratic Reforms and activists like Yogendra Yadav have moved the top court against the EC order