Mass inclusion and not exclusion should be goal of Bihar SIR, says Supreme Court

The Hindu

2 days ago

The Supreme Court on Monday (July 28, 2025) pushed harder for the Election Commission of India (ECI)) to accept Aadhaar and the Elector's Photo Identity Card (EPIC) as identity documents in the Bihar Special Intensive Revision (SIR), saying 'mass inclusion' and not 'en masse exclusion' should be the outcome of the exercise in the poll-bound State.
With three more days left for the publication of the draft electoral roll on August 1, the ECI continued to resist the court's suggestion, saying Aadhaar, EPIC and ration cards could be forged easily.
On July 10, the apex court had asked the Election Commission to consider these three documents to ward off the spectre of mass disenfranchisement even as petitioners, ranging from activists to political parties, called the SIR a 'citizenship screening'.
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'Any document on earth can be forged. Maybe one EPIC in a 1000 may not be genuine. That can be take up on a case-to-case basis… For that matter, any document on this earth can be forged,' Justice Surya Kant, accompanied by Justice Joymalya Bagchi, addressed the Election Commission (EC).
Justice Kant said Aadhaar and EPIC have a 'presumption of correctness'. Aadhaar has a system of being authenticated when in use. EPIC was issued by the EC itself.
'So, proceed with Aadhaar and EPIC… Include these two documents in the list of 11,' Justice Kant said.
Justice Bagchi reasoned that none of the 11 'indicative' documents acceptable as proof of identity were of a conclusive nature, be it residence or caste certificates.
'According to you none of these 11 documents are conclusive. They are just documents to accompany the enumeration forms. So if someone gives an Aadhaar card as proof of identity, why will you not evaluate the claim of the person to be in the electoral roll?' Justice Bagchi questioned the EC's logic.
Senior advocates KK Venugopal and Rakesh Dwivedi appeared for the EC. The petitioners were represented by senior advocates like Kapil Sibal and Gopal Sankaranarayanan. The court, which rose early, said it would announce on July 29 an early date and a proper schedule for hearing the final arguments in the case.
Mr. Sankaranaraynan alerted the Bench about the proximity of the date of publication of the draft roll, August 1.
But Justice Kant was unperturbed, saying 'it was only a draft'. Noting that the petitioners had not insisted on any interim relief of the stay of the publication or a freeze on the SIR exercise, the judge assured the petitioners that publication of the draft roll would not shrink the powers of the court to overturn any decision of the EC, provided the petitioners prove their case.
The senior lawyer said the publication of the draft roll would leave 4.5 crore people excluded from it rudderless. The burden would be transferred onto them to prove their identity and citizenship, file objections and even seek a review.
At this point, Justice Bagchi drew the counsel's attention to the EC affidavit which stated that voters who were in the existing 2025 electoral roll of Bihar would feature in the draft roll to be published on August 1, provided they submitted their enumeration forms, with or without documents.
The existing electoral roll was published in Bihar on January 7, 2015 after a special summary revision of the electoral roll.
'In substance, each elector included in the 2025 electoral roll shall form part of the draft roll merely on submission of the enumeration form,' the 88-page ECI affidavit had submitted.
The electors who were unable to submit their enumeration forms with documents in time for the draft roll had another opportunity to be included in the final roll. 'This claims period is stipulated for another period of 31 days after publication of the draft roll, ie, till September 1, 2025,' the ECI clarified. The final roll would be published on September 30, 2025.
'Even after the publication of the final roll, new electors can be enrolled up to the last date of nominations of the forthcoming Bihar elections… Any apprehension of huge disenfranchisement is misleading and non-existent,' the ECI has assured.
Further, the ECI said electors whose names already feature in the electoral roll of Bihar in 2003, when the last intensive revision was held, were exempted from furnishing documents to prove their eligibility.
'They are only required to file the partially pre-filled enumeration form along with the extract of the 2003 roll,' the affidavit had said.