Election Commission agrees to disclose details on Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision issue

The Election Commission of India (ECI) agreed to comply with the Supreme Court’s directive to publish full details of approximately 65 lakh voters excluded in Bihar’s recent Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls on Aug 14.

The judgment mandates that the names of these individuals and reasons for their exclusion such as death, migration, or duplication be displayed on the official websites of every District Electoral Officer, allowing citizens to verify their status through EPIC-based searches.

The bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi questioned the ECI’s reluctance to share this data during the hearing: “Why can’t you put all deleted names on a website? If information is in the public domain, the negative narrative disappears.” In response, the ECI conceded and agreed to the measure.

Additional accessibility mesaures that have been ordered are:

Booth-level lists of omitted voters must be displayed at Block Development and Panchayat offices to enable manual verification.

The ECI must issue public notices in vernacular and English newspapers, and share updates via TV, radio, and social media platforms.

A visible 30-day window will be granted for aggrieved individuals to submit claims, including the option to present Aadhaar cards as proof of identity.

The Court has instructed the ECI to submit a full compliance report by August 22, with a further hearing scheduled subsequently.

The tribunal also underscored that it is within the ECI’s exclusive authority — under Article 324 of the Constitution and Section 21(3) of the Representation of People Act, 1950 — to decide the nature and timing of roll revisions. The SIR, the Court noted, is currently “voter-friendly, not exclusionary.”

Meanwhile, petitioners and opposition parties, including the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), hailed the Court’s order as a win for democratic accountability.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar initiated on June 24, aimed to overhaul outdated electoral rolls by requiring voters missing from the 2003 list to produce valid identification among a set of eleven documents.

However, the exclusion of widely used IDs like Aadhaar sparked criticism for complicating inclusion. Petitioners highlighted discrepancies, including deceased persons still listed and missing entries for legitimate voters.

ECI had initially resisted releasing deletion data, citing no legal mandate. It emphasized that the draft roll is provisional and rectifiable, with formal inclusion options available through statutory claim processes.