Aadhaar, voter id valid for SIR in Bihar, says SC
The draft roll is scheduled to be published on August 1 and the final roll on September 30 amid Opposition claims that the ongoing exercise will deprive crores of eligible citizens from their right to vote.
The remarks by the apex court came on a day when several MPs of the INDIA bloc parties, including Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, protested in the Parliament House complex the EC's voter roll revision and demanded its rollback.
The Rajya Sabha was disrupted once again as Opposition MPs continued to protest over the SIR issue. The Opposition's demand on the SIR issue also held up the scheduled discussion on the Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor in the Lok Sabha for a couple of hours, prompting the government to accuse it of betrayal after initially agreeing to the debate.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi while asking the poll panel to continue accepting Aadhaar and voter ID for the SIR exercise in Bihar in compliance with its order said both documents had a "presumption of genuineness".
"As far as ration cards are concerned we can say they can be forged easily but Aadhaar and voter cards have some sanctity and have presumption of genuineness. You continue accepting these documents."
The bench would on July 29 fix the time schedule to conduct the final hearing of the matter. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, said the electoral rolls should not be finalised in the interim, pressing for an interim stay on the publication of the draft rolls on August 1.
The bench, however, referred to the top court's previous order noting the petitioners did not press for an interim relief, which couldn't be allowed now and said the matter would be interpreted once and for all. The bench noted the election commission's statement that the enumeration forms for the SIR could be submitted even after the publication of draft rolls. "Don't undermine the power of the court. Trust us. If the court agrees with your submission and if any illegality is found, then this court will quash everything then and there."
On July 10, a bench headed by Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia asked the EC to consider Aadhaar, voter ID and ration cards as valid documents as it allowed the poll panel to continue with its exercise in Bihar. The top court on Monday said it prima facie agreed with the July 10 order and the Election Commission of India (ECI) accepted in its counter affidavit that Aadhaar, voter cards and ration cards could be accepted.
While expressing its reservation on ration cards, the bench endorsed the "presumption of genuineness" of the other two documents. Sankaranarayanan said despite the ECI's assertion in the counter affidavit of accepting Aadhaar and voter cards, ground reports suggested otherwise.
Justice Kant said the election commission suggested the list of 11 documents for the SIR exercise was not inclusive but exhaustive and they were using both Aadhaar and voter IDs for the purpose of identification.
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the ECI, said Aadhaar was not a proof of citizenship and voter card was not relied upon as it was a revision exercise or else there was no use of such an exercise. Justice Kant then remarked, "Any document on earth can be forged.
The election commission can deal with cases of forgery on a case to case basis. Instead of en masse exclusion it must be en masse inclusion."
Justice Bagchi, on the other hand, referred to the ECI's position that none of the 11 documents referred for SIR were conclusive and asked why couldn't someone uploading only Aadhaar be included. Dwivedi said the poll panel was accepting both Aadhaar and voter IDs but with certain supporting documents.
The bench then asked the lawyers appearing for different parties to submit the timeline and the time they required for arguments by July 29.
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