The Election Commission (EC) has assured the Supreme Court that no voter’s name will be deleted from Bihar’s draft electoral rolls without prior notice, an opportunity to be heard, and a reasoned order by the competent authority.
In an additional affidavit filed on Saturday, days after publishing the draft rolls listing 7.24 crore voters and excluding over 65 lakh names, the EC said the removals were largely due to death or migration. It stressed that any deletion would follow “strict adherence to the principles of natural justice,” backed by a two-tier appeal mechanism under the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
The EC maintained that the law does not require it to prepare or publish a separate list of names excluded from the draft rolls or the reasons for their non-inclusion. Instead, before the draft’s release on August 1, booth-level lists of electors whose enumeration forms were not received were shared with political parties to help trace missing voters.
The commission also rejected the petitioner’s claim that excluded voters had no recourse, pointing to existing provisions for inclusion claims during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR). It accused the petitioner — NGO Association for Democratic Reforms — of attempting to “malign” the EC through misleading narratives, urging the court to impose costs.
The Supreme Court, on August 6, directed the EC to furnish details of the 65 lakh excluded electors by August 9. The matter is being heard by a bench led by Justice Surya Kant, following pleas challenging the EC’s June 24 order for the SIR of Bihar’s rolls.
With inputs from PTI.
