The PUCL welcomes the interim order in ADR and others v Union of India, as the order will bring transparency to the SIR procedure and provide a chance to eligible voters, whose names are missing from the draft roll, to use their Aadhar Card to seek inclusion of their names. The order vindicates our fundamental objections and apprehensions raised right from the day of the sudden imposition of SIR.
The SC has directed the ECI to display booth-wise the deleted names on the websites of the District Election Officers and make the list searchable by EPIC numbers. The list should also disclose the reason for non-inclusion in the draft roll. The list should also be displayed by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Bihar on its website.
The ECI must ensure that the list and the reasons for non-inclusion for each name are displayed on the notice boards of respective Panchayat Bhavans and offices of the Block Development Officer/Panchayat Officers. The ECI is also directed to extensively publicise the information about the online and offline availability of the list through the daily newspapers in the vernacular language as well as English newspapers having wide circulation in Bihar, broadcast and telecast through radio, electronic media, and, if available, through official social media accounts of the District Election Officers and Chief Electoral Officer. Importantly, the Supreme Court directed that the public notices expressly mention that the aggrieved persons may submit their claims along with a copy of their Aadhar Card.
As the PUCL Bihar’s field surveys show, a significant number of voters whose names appear in the draft list on the ECI website have been asked to contact their BLOs and submit the required documents. The most worrying matter is that such voters have not been contacted by any election official so far, and they have no idea about their application status. Such voters are at high risk of losing their right to vote.
In furtherance of the Supreme Court mandate to ensure transparency, it is now incumbent upon the ECI to ensure that the BLOs must contact each of these voters and Aadhar must be accepted as a qualifying document for inclusion of their name in the final voter list, if they cannot produce any of the 11 documents listed by the ECI. It is also in the interests of ensuring that existing voters are not unfairly struck off the rolls that those with Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPIC)are also included in the final voter list. This will safeguard the right to vote of all Indian citizens, which is the very heart of Indian democracy.
The ECI must also ensure that if any voter, from among the names included in the draft list, is not recommended for inclusion in the final list, the SC’s orders applicable to the already excluded 65 lakh voters must apply to such non-included voters in the final list as well.
This includes publishing, online and offline, the names of the non-included persons in the final list along with the reason for their exclusion, ensuring that the information regarding the non-inclusion of their names reaches them, and giving adequate time to the aggrieved persons to seek redressal, even if that requires extending the current timelines set by the ECI.
PUCL is also concerned about the paucity of information about new inclusions (or lack thereof) in the draft electoral roll. Henceforth, Aadhar as mandated by the Supreme Court must be accepted as a qualifying document for new additions to the electoral roll, or the exercise rather than being a revision of the election roll will be seen as an exercise in exclusion from the election roll.
Regarding the category of “permanently shifted” or “not found” under which 36 lakh voters have been excluded from the draft list, there is a high probability that this includes a significant number of “circular’ migrants, either migrating singly or with their entire family. Hence, the ECI must allow any family member to fill out the SIR form and submit the required document on behalf of the other adult members.
PUCL firmly believes that these measures will strengthen India’s democracy and people’s faith in the impartial functioning of all state institutions.
The PUCL is hopeful that the process mandating transparency set in place by the Supreme Court will be taken forward in the spirit of the Constitution and no voter will suffer unfair and arbitrary disenfranchisement.
It is important to note that V. Suresh is the petitioner on behalf of the PUCL and Sarfaraz-Uddin as voter and direct stakeholder as an elector living in the state of Bihar.
Kavita Srivastava (President, National), V. Suresh (General Secretary, National)
Anand Kishore (State President, Bihar), Sarfaraz-Uddin (General Secretary, Bihar)/
