No doubt Election Commission is aware of its duty: SC during Bihar SIR hearing

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday said it has "no doubt" that the Election Commission of India will disclose details of the recent special intensive revision (SIR) in Bihar, even as the poll body in an affidavit refuted accusations of "disproportionate exclusion of Muslims" from the voters' list.

"We have no doubt that they (ECI) know their responsibilities. They are bound to publish it," a bench of justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi orally remarked in response to petitioners' plea to direct ECI to publish the complete lists of deleted and added voters after SIR.

Speaking for the bench, justice Kant assured the petitioners that it is "not closing the matter".


The bench was hearing a clutch of pleas, including one by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms challenging the Bihar SIR.

On typographical mistakes mentioned by petitioners in the revised list, SC said, "We expect them (ECI), as a responsible body, to come out with remedial measures."

The bench reiterated its regret on the inaction by political parties in not assisting voters in filing appeals against exclusion. "Political parties were never interested. We all know how political parties have behaved," it observed.

Appearing for the petitioners, advocate Prashant Bhushan demanded that ECI should separately publish the list of deleted voters and added voters. Appearing on behalf of ECI, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi submitted that a court direction was not required and the data would be published.

In a related development, the ECI filed a comprehensive affidavit in the top court, saying ADR's accusation of "disproportionate exclusion of Muslims" from Bihar's electoral rolls is baseless and communal. "This communal approach is to be deprecated," it said.

ECI noted that the electoral rolls database does not record or capture any information about an elector's religion. Hence, any charge of religious bias in the voter deletion or inclusion process is unfounded, it submitted.

"The petitioners have sought to allege that there is disproportionate exclusion of Muslims - 25% among the 65 lakh excluded voters from the draft electoral roll, and 34% among the 3.66 lakh electors finally deleted. This is based on some software for name recognition, whose accuracy or appropriateness cannot be commented upon," the affidavit reads.

The poll body further pointed out that approximately 3.66 lakh names were deleted after due process and, so far, no appeals have been filed against these deletions. It said most of the 65 lakh individuals who were not included in the draft electoral roll had either failed to submit the required enumeration forms, had shifted residence permanently or were deceased.

According to ECI's data, political parties filed only 25 claims for inclusion and 119 objections, while 36,475 inclusion and 2.17 lakh exclusion claims were received directly from individuals. It underscored that no appeals have been received so far against exclusions from the final list.

The poll body alleged that the petitioners are trying to "derail and disrupt" the SIR exercise in Bihar. It claimed that population projections from the 2011 Census were wrongly used by the petitioners to make their submissions.