SEC releases final photo electoral rolls for BTC polls
The rolls cover all 40 constituencies across the five districts of the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) — Kokrajhar, Udalguri, Baksa, Chirang, and Tamulpur. The rolls include 81 newly added villages, following a delimitation exercise undertaken by the state govt. Of the total voters, 13,23,673 are men, 13,34,787 are women, and 17 belong to the third gender.
A total of 3,279 polling stations have been proposed, though this number is subject to change.
The final list of polling stations will be published on August 18, after rationalisation is completed. Voters can verify their names using their EPIC number or by downloading details from the citizen corner on the SEC's website.
To boost voter participation, the state commission has announced that claims for enrolment will be accepted until the last date of nomination filing, provided the applicants are eligible under the ECI's current summary revision and are listed in the supplementary roll with a valid EPIC.
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Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Enumeration forms already have provision for Aadhaar: Election Commission official
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Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Not interdicting Election Commission power on SIR: Supreme Court
New Delhi: "We want transparency in the entire process (of special intensive revision of electoral rolls) as an adult has a constitutional right to be included in the voters list and with a consequential statutory right to vote," the Supreme Court said on Thursday while directing Election Commission to publish names of deleted voters in Bihar along with reason for deletion. EC had earlier argued that there was no statutory obligation for it to make public the details of deletions. It had also pointed out that the details were with booth level officers and had been shared with political parties. On Thursday, the bench persuaded the poll body to relent on its stand by suggesting that transparency will blunt the allegations against SIR. "We are not interdicting EC's power to conduct SIR. But we want transparency in the entire process of revision of electoral rolls. If you (EC) publish the names of 65 lakh voters with reason for deletion from the draft list and provide a fair opportunity to the aggrieved persons to take remedial measures, it will counter a certain narrative that is being spread," the bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said. The bench also said Aadhaar was to be accepted as identity proof for deleted voters who seek inclusion of their names, as Aadhaar is the most easily available identity document. "(EC's) list of 11 documents seems citizen-friendly, but Aadhaar and EPIC are readily available... your notice can say that those who have not submitted so far, they can submit their Aadhaar and EPIC also," Justice Bagchi said. The bench asked EC, represented by senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, to give wide publicity to uploading of booth-wise list of deleted names in the websites of chief electoral officer as well as district electoral officer; and, display of the printed list in panchayat and block offices by issuing advertisements in layman's language in vernacular and English newspapers as well as on radio and television. "We want Poonam Devi and Anita Devi to know which website is to be accessed to find whether their names are in the voter list," the bench said. The data uploaded in the CEO and DEO websites should be searchable through EPIC number, the bench said, and directed EC to file a compliance report by Aug 22, the next date of hearing. After SIR, EC had produced a draft roll containing 7.24 crore voters and revealed that approximately 65 lakh had been deleted from the existing voters list. The 65 lakh included 22 lakh dead voters, 36 lakh who have permanently migrated outside Bihar and 7 lakh whose names were found included in voters lists for multiple constituencies. Aadhaar will now be considered by Election Commission as an identity proof for any of the voters for inclusion in the voter list if they figured among the list of deleted names. At the commencement of EC's turn to respond to the two-day-long caustic arguments against SIR and deletion of 65 lakh voters, Dwivedi said EC does not claim to be either omnipotent or impotent when it comes to revising the voters list, which is sine qua non for a fair election. "But those who lose elections always need an excuse. If they win, EVM is fantastic. But if they lose, they raise hundred questions about EVM's fairness. Though the SC has settled the fairness of EVMs through a series of judgments, the narratives of those who lose elections would continue and neither the Supreme Court nor EC can stop it," Dwivedi said.
Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Publish details of SIR deletions, take Aadhaar: Supreme Court to Election Commission
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to make public by August 19 the district-wise list of nearly 6.5 million voters whose names have been left out of Bihar's draft electoral rolls during the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise, along with specific reasons for their non-inclusion, stressing that transparency was essential to bolster public confidence and safeguard the constitutional right to vote. A bench of justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said preparing electoral rolls was not a mere administrative formality but a process with direct implications for a citizen's franchise. (FILE) The court also ordered that ECI will accept Aadhaar cards from those whose names do not find place in the draft electoral rolls. A bench of justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said preparing electoral rolls was not a mere administrative formality but a process with direct implications for a citizen's franchise. 'A fair procedure is a must,' the court observed, warning that the absence of clarity in exclusions could strain public trust. 'Transparency will help create voter confidence…If Poonam Devi has been omitted, Poonam Devi must be able to know that she has been deleted and why she has been deleted…why should voters run after local political parties (to learn whether their names have been struck off)… We don't want citizens' rights to be dependent on political party workers,' the bench told senior counsel Rakesh Dwivedi, who appeared for ECI and concurred with the court's directives. The court's directions virtually rebuff the ECI's stand that it has no statutory duty to prepare or publish a separate list of the nearly 6.5 million names missing from Bihar's draft electoral rolls, or to disclose the reasons for their exclusion, insisting instead that the draft rolls need only be shared with recognised political parties and authorised officials. The Opposition hailed the direction, calling it a 'victory' for democracy and a 'slap' to 'the BJP's Election Commission'. The BJP countered this saying that 'no one was opposed' to SIR, and claimed that the court's directions were a 'disappointment' for the Congress. Responding to the court order, ECI said it was 'already accepting Aadhaar card as proof,' sharing a photograph of the enumeration form used during the SIR. 'List of deceased, voter at two places and permanently shifted is being shared with political parties since July 20, 2025,' it said. In its interim order, passed on a clutch of petitions challenging the Bihar SIR, the bench recorded ECI's agreement that the list of approximately 6.5 million voters, who were on the electoral rolls in 2025 but are missing from the draft rolls, will be displayed on the websites of every district electoral officer (DEO), arranged district-wise and booth-wise, and accessible by the EPIC (Electors Photo ID Card) number. Each entry will specify whether the omission was due to death, migration, duplication, or other reasons, recorded the court, adding notices about the list will be published in widely circulated vernacular newspapers, broadcast on TV and radio, and posted on the official social media handles of DEOs. The order further stated that booth-wise lists, with reasons, will be displayed on notice boards in panchayat or block development offices by booth level officers (BLOs). The lists will be in EPIC-based searchable format to make them easily usable for the public. The bench also directed that the same information be uploaded on the website of the chief electoral officer of Bihar. The bench directed that public notices will explicitly state that aggrieved persons may file claims for inclusion in the final rolls by furnishing an Aadhaar card, in addition to the 11 documents already accepted. During the hearing, the bench repeatedly underlined that voters should not have to approach political parties to find out whether their names had been dropped. Responding to Dwivedi's assertions that ECI has circulated draft rolls to political parties as well as in the relevant areas, the bench asked: 'Can't you have a mechanism where they do not have to run after local political parties? Why don't you put it on the internet also?' The court added that placing the lists in the public domain could counter perceptions of opacity. 'If you bring it in the public domain, the narrative (against the ECI) disappears,' said the bench, also insisting that the public notices be 'layman-friendly' and in simple language, so that ordinary voters could easily understand the process and know how to take remedial steps. On the petitioners' request, made by senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan and advocates Vrinda Grover and Prashant Bhushan, that the list be in a 'searchable format', the court agreed. 'It has to be searchable,' said the bench, rejecting Dwivedi's reliance on a 2018 Supreme Court judgment in the Kamal Nath case that said voter lists need not be searchable. The directions came on a bunch of petitions challenging ECI's June 24 directive ordering an SIR ahead of the upcoming Bihar assembly polls. The petitioners that include NGOs, political leaders and activists have alleged that the process, if left unchecked, could disenfranchise millions of legitimate voters and undermine free and fair elections. The petitioners argue SIR's documentation requirements and the omission of Aadhaar from ECI's official list of acceptable proof of citizenship risk excluding genuine voters. Represented through senior advocates including Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Shadan Farasat, and Shoeb Alam, the petitioners question whether the commission can undertake such an exercise for verifying citizenship, contending that this power lies with the Union government. ECI has defended SIR as necessary to update rolls that have not undergone intensive revision for nearly two decades, citing demographic changes and migration patterns. It maintains that exclusion from the draft rolls is not the same as deletion from the final rolls, and that no name will be removed without notice, hearing, and a reasoned order. In its latest affidavit filed on August 9, the commission stressed that the 1950 Act and the 1960 Rules do not require it to prepare or publish a separate list of the nearly 6.5 million persons not included in the draft rolls, or to state the reasons for each non-inclusion. SIR has become a major political flashpoint ahead of the Bihar assembly elections scheduled for later this year. Opposition parties in the INDIA bloc have staged protests in Parliament and written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking a special discussion on what they call an 'unprecedented' revision so close to state polls. Eight parties, including the Congress, RJD, Samajwadi Party, DMK, Trinamool Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT), have warned that the exercise could be replicated nationwide. On August 8, Union home minister Amit Shah, addressing a rally in Bihar's Sitamarhi, launched a sharp attack on Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and the INDIA bloc, accusing them of opposing the revision because 'names of infiltrators' were being removed from the lists. 'Infiltrators have no right to vote. Names of infiltrators must be removed from the voters' lists. But the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress are opposing SIR in Bihar because the names of infiltrators are being deleted,' Shah said.
