No legal mandate to publish list of excluded voters: ECI to Supreme Court

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has told the Supreme Court that the law does not mandate it to "prepare or share" any "separate list" of names of electors not included in the draft electoral rolls.

Also, ECI has argued that the law does not require it to "publish" the "reasons" for non-inclusion of an individual in the draft electoral rolls. "The statutory framework does not require the commission to prepare or share any separate list of names of people not included in the draft electoral rolls, or publish the reasons for non-inclusion of anyone in the draft electoral rolls for any reason," the affidavit reads. This has been submitted by ECI in response to an application filed by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) seeking details of 65 lakh names dropped from the recently published Bihar draft electoral roll as part of an ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

Pertinently at the outset, ECI, in its affidavit, has submitted that the list of approximately 65 lakh electors whose names have not been included in the draft roll has been shared with political parties. It has further submitted that since "neither the law nor guidelines provide for preparation or sharing" of any such list of previous electors whose enumeration form is not received for any reason during the enumeration phase, "no such list can be sought by the petitioner as a matter of right."


The poll body has said that the petitioner (ADR) "can reach out" to political parties to "gather" the said list. Noteworthily, ECI has said that "exclusion of a name from the draft electoral roll does not amount to deletion of an individual from the electoral rolls". It added, "The draft roll simply shows that the duly filled enumeration form of existing electors has been received during the enumeration phase."

Elaborating, the poll body has submitted that "but, on account of human involvement in execution of this exercise of scale, there is always a possibility that an exclusion or inclusion might surface due to inadvertence or error. It is for this reason that the law provides a remedy that if the Electoral Registration officer (ERO) is of the view that owing to inadvertence or error during preparation, the names of any electors have been left out of the draft roll, the ERO has the power to take remedial action."It added, "It is for this reason that issuance of reasons for exclusion of names from the draft rolls is not contemplated in the statutory framework governing the preparation of electoral rolls."

Giving reasons for not preparing or sharing reasons for exclusion of electors in the draft rolls, ECI has submitted that "no inquiry is done for the inclusion of anyone's name in the draft rolls, and each and every individual whose, enumeration form, has been received, has been included in the draft rolls, without any reservation or exception."