Top court asks poll body to include Aadhaar, EPIC in Bihar voter roll revision
On July 10, the Supreme Court asked the Election Commission to include Aadhaar, EPIC, and ration card as valid documents for voter registration in Bihar's ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), and said that it was necessary "in the interest of justice". The court also allowed the revision exercise to proceed.During today's hearing, the poll panel argued that Aadhaar is not proof of citizenship and raised concerns about fake ration cards, adding that large-scale forgery made it difficult to rely on them.However, the Commission conceded that Aadhaar could be submitted as proof of identity and that its number is already requested in the registration form.The top court responded by questioning the inconsistency, noting that if no document on the Election Commission's own list is conclusive, the same argument could apply to Aadhaar and EPIC."If tomorrow, even the other ten documents you've accepted are found forged, where is the mechanism to prevent that? Why allow mass exclusions and not mass inclusions?" the bench asked.The court also requested a timeline for the process if someone is excluded from the list.The hearing pertains to a petition challenging the exclusion of documents like Aadhaar and the alleged large-scale removals from the Bihar electoral rolls.Petitioners urged the court to halt the finalisation of the draft list, arguing that citizens would be forced to individually contest exclusions. Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioners, requested an interim stay on the publication of the draft rolls scheduled for August 1.Furthermore, the court asked the counsels to submit a timeline for their arguments and said it will decide the hearing schedule tomorrow, July 29.- EndsTune InMust Watch
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