NEW DELHI: Election Commission's special intensive revision (SIR) of Bihar's electoral rolls just months before assembly polls has been challenged in Supreme Court with Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) telling the court that the decision has been taken arbitrarily with an impractical timeline and that it would disenfranchise lakhs of people, particularly from marginalised communities. This is against free and fair election, the organisation said.
ADR, on whose pleas SC has in the past passed multiple orders to bring in electoral reforms, said in its petition that SIR's requirement for citizenship documentation disproportionately affects marginalised communities, including Muslims, SCs, STs and migrant workers, as Aadhaar and ration cards are not acceptable. Many people who didn't have the requisite documents might not be able to procure it within the short time period fixed by EC, it said.
"The SIR order, if not set aside, can arbitrarily and without due process disenfranchise lakhs of voters from electing their representatives, thereby disrupting free and fair elections and democracy in the country," the petition said. "The documentation requirements of the directive, lack of due process as well as the unreasonably short timeline for SIR of electoral roll in Bihar further make this exercise bound to result in removal of names of lakhs of genuine voters from electoral rolls," it said.
The EC order has "shifted the onus of being on the voters' list from the State to citizens. It has excluded identification documents such as Aadhaar or ration cards which further makes marginalised communities and the poor more vulnerable to exclusion from voting", it said.
"The declaration as required under SIR process is violative of Article 326 in so far as it requires a voter to provide documents to prove his/her citizenship and also citizenships of his/her mother or father, failing which his/her name would not be added to the draft electoral roll and can be deleted from the same," the petition said
Terming the timeline fixed by EC for SIR as unreasonable and impractical, the petition said lakhs of citizens who didn't possess the required documents may not be able to procure the documents within the short time.
"Bihar is a state with high poverty and migration rates where many lack access to documents like birth certificates or parental records. As per estimates, over three crore voters and more particularly from marginalised communities could be excluded from voting due to the stringent requirements as mentioned in the SIR order. That the current reports from Bihar, where SIR is already underway, show that lakhs of voters from villages and marginalised communities do not possess the documents as being sought for them," the petition said.
Questioning EC's decision allegedly taken in haste, the petition pointed out that the commission in May listed 21 initiatives to improve voter access and to streamline poll management but the SIR of electoral rolls was not mentioned.