
Both Houses adjourned for the day over Bihar electoral rolls revision
The proceedings of both the Houses will resume tomorrow, August 7.
The Lok Sabha assembled at 11 am for the proceeding, but was soon disrupted by Opposition MPs raising slogans, calling for a debate on SIR. Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House till noon in an attempt to restore order.
Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha witnessed similar commotion, leading the Chairperson, Bhubaneshwar Kalita, to adjourn the House till 12 p.m. He urged members to participate in the discussion on the Carriage of Goods by Sea Bill, 2025, which was listed for consideration.
When the Rajya Sabha resumed at 2 pm, the Bill was passed by voice vote amid continuing protests from the Opposition. Soon after the passage, the House was adjourned for the day.
Earlier, when Rajya Sabha commenced for the day, Deputy Chairman Harivansh said he would not admit 35 notices received under Rule 267, prompting Opposition members to stand up and protest, demanding that a discussion be held on important issues.
'Thirty-five notices have been received today under Rule 267. In view of my observation made yesterday, and since none of these notices are in adherence to the rules as enunciated in the past, I am not admitting any of the notices,' Harivansh said. With members refusing to give in, the deputy chairman adjourned the proceedings till 2 pm.
In Lok Sabha, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju appealed to the Opposition to allow the House to function, stating that discussions must conform to constitutional rules and procedures.
He said, 'The government has been open to discussions on any matter. However, discussing the SIR issue in Parliament would amount to a violation of rules and conventions.' He further mentioned that the government had postponed the National Sports Governance Bill, 2025, on the Opposition's request and would take it up later.
Despite disruptions, the Merchant Shipping Bill, 2024, was passed in the Lok Sabha before the House was adjourned. Amid the din, nothing was audible.
The monsoon session, which commenced on July 21, has been marked by repeated disruptions, with only two days dedicated to the debate on Operation Sindoor proceeding without interruption.
UNI AJ RBE PRS
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Indian Express
28 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Behind EC's use of ‘notional' house numbers: Inclusion in roll, lack of standardised addresses
Citing the findings of the Congress's internal investigation, Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, had alleged last week that over one lakh votes were 'stolen' in Karnataka's Mahadevapura Assembly segment — part of the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat — during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Of these, he said, nearly half involved irregularities in electors' addresses. While the Election Commission (EC) is yet to respond to the charge, the claim spotlights a long-standing challenge for the poll body — the absence of standardised addresses for many voters, and the continued practice of assigning 'notional' house numbers. Gandhi said the Congress analysed the Mahadevapura electoral rolls over six months and found that of 1,00,250 alleged bogus voters, 40,009 had 'fake and invalid addresses' and 10,452 were 'bulk voters' registered at common addresses. Examples included entries with '0' in the address field, non-existent locations and addresses that could not be verified. For much of India's electoral history, the electoral rolls were simple lists with only the elector's name, age, a relative's (father, mother or husband) name, constituency and serial number. While the 'house number' column was there, it was often left blank. Some pages of the rolls from 1980, 1983 and 1988 examined by The Indian Express list only the serial number, name, gender and age in most cases, with house numbers given for some electors. However, some of these house numbers were notional, they were known as 'temporary house number', an official said. The EC began computerising the rolls in 1998 and introduced photo electoral rolls in 2005, according to its 2023 Manual on Electoral Rolls. It was during this shift to digital records that the practice of assigning 'notional' addresses became standard across the board, ensuring that electors without a permanent or well-defined address — or those who left the field blank — were not excluded from the database. The problem of inconsistent or informal addresses goes beyond the drafting or revision of electoral rolls. The Centre has repeatedly acknowledged it as a long-standing challenge – most recently in May, when the Department of Posts, in a policy document, proposed creating a digital public infrastructure to standardise addresses. 'Despite the centrality of address information in everyday life, frictions exist in how such data is managed, shared and used across India,' it noted, citing linguistic diversity, inconsistent formats and fragmented address data. Current and former Election Commission (EC) officials told The Indian Express that over time, when electors either lacked a proper address or left the field blank, they were assigned 'notional' addresses to ensure their inclusion in the rolls. EC instructions dating back to at least 2011 – and reiterated as recently as June 24 for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar — direct that such numbers be allotted and clearly marked as 'notional' in the roll. Identical wording appeared in instructions to Chief Electoral Officers of poll-bound states, including Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana, in May 2023. Officials said the practice exists nationwide, but tends to draw greater attention in urban constituencies with high migrant populations and unplanned settlements. It stems from the Commission's stated philosophy of inclusion, not exclusion, from the electoral roll. For example, in the case of homeless persons, EC guidelines instruct Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to verify the address given in Form 6 at night — checking on more than one occasion — to confirm that the person actually sleeps there. No documentary proof of residence is required if this is established. A 2011 EC training module for BLOs stated that where a municipality has assigned house numbers, those should be used, as they also appear on Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) that double as address proof for other government schemes. Where no official number exists, or the sequence is irregular, BLOs are to assign notional numbers starting from 1 in each section. These numbers, the manual noted, are 'computer generated' and 'not necessarily in consonance with the number allowed by the municipality'. In illegal colonies, municipalities sometimes allot '0' as a house number to avoid conferring legal status, an official said. It is unclear whether this was the case in the addresses Gandhi cited. A former Chief Election Commissioner, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the quality of electoral rolls has improved over the years and a notional address was not an irregularity. Similar objections have surfaced earlier — during the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections, for instance, the BJP flagged voters listed with '0' as their house number. In the most recent draft roll published in Bihar on August 1, the use of notional numbers has continued.


Hans India
28 minutes ago
- Hans India
SIR appears to be trust deficit issue: SC
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday called the Bihar special intensive revision (SIR) row "largely a trust deficit issue' as the Election Commission of India (ECI) claimed roughly 6.5 crore people of the total 7.9 crore voting population didn't have to file any documents for them or their parents featured in the 2003 electoral roll. The top court is hearing a batch of pleas against the Election Commission electoral roll revision exercise in Bihar. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi during the hearing remarked it "largely appears to be a case of trust deficit, nothing else' as it questioned the petitioners challenging the EC's June 24 decision of conducting the SIR on the ground that it would disenfranchise one crore voters. "If out of 7.9 crore voters, 7.24 crore voters responded to the SIR, it demolishes theory of one crore voters missing or disenfranchised," the bench told senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for petitioner and RJD leader Manoj Jha. The top court also agreed with the EC decision to not accept Aadhaar and voter cards as conclusive proof of citizenship in the ongoing exercise and said it has to be supported by other documents. Sibal contended that despite residents holding Aadhaar, ration and EPIC cards, officials refused to accept the documents. "Is it your argument that people who have no documents but are in Bihar and therefore he should be considered as a voter of the state. That can be allowed. He has to show or submit some documents (sic)," the bench said. When Sibal said people were struggling to find birth certificates and other documents of their parents, Justice Kant said, "It is a very sweeping statement that in Bihar nobody has the documents. If this happens in Bihar, then what will happen in other parts of the country?" Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi and advocate Prashant Bhushan, who were representing different political parties, also questioned the timeline for the completion of the exercise and the data of 65 lakh voters who were declared as dead or migrated or registered in other constituencies. Political activist Yogendra Yadav, who addressed the court in person, questioned the data given by the poll panel and said instead of 7.9 crore voters there was total adult population of 8.18 crore and the design of SIR exercise was to delete the voters. "They (EC) were not able to find any individual whose name was added and the booth level officers visited house to house for deletion of names," Yadav said, calling it a case of "total disenfranchisement". Sibal during the hearing said while in one constituency, contrary to the poll panel's claims, 12 people declared dead were found alive, in another instance alive persons were declared dead. Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the poll panel, said the exercise of such a nature was "bound to have some defects here and there at the draft stage" and to claim dead persons were declared alive and alive as dead could always be corrected as it was only a draft roll. The bench in the beginning of the hearing told the ECI to "be ready" with facts and figures for it would be question over the number of voters before the exercise commenced; number of dead before and now aside from other relevant details. The hearing would resume on Wednesday. On July 29, terming the election commission a constitutional authority deemed to act in accordance with law, the top court said it will step in immediately if there is "mass exclusion" in the SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar. The draft roll was published on August 1 and the final roll is scheduled to be published on September 30 amid Opposition claims that the ongoing exercise will deprive crores of eligible citizens from their right to vote. On July 10, the top court 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 EC affidavit has justified its ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, saying it adds to the purity of the election by "weeding out ineligible persons" from the electoral rolls. Beside RJD MP Jha and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress' K C Venugopal, Supriya Sule from the Sharad Pawar NCP faction, D Raja from Communist Party of India, Harinder Singh Malik from Samajwadi Party, Arvind Sawant from Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), Sarfraz Ahmed from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Dipankar Bhattacharya of CPI (ML) have jointly moved the top court challenging the June 24 decision of the election commission. Several other civil society organisations like PUCL, NGO Association of Democratic Reforms and activists like Yogendra Yadav have moved the top court against the EC order.


The Hindu
28 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Fatehpur mausoleum vandalism sparks ruckus in U.P. Assembly
The Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Tuesday (August 12, 2025) witnessed uproar over an incident in Fatehpur where members of Hindu organisations, including the Bajrang Dal, on Monday (August 11, 2025) attempted to offer prayers inside an old mausoleum, barging into the premises and allegedly vandalising parts of the structure with sticks. The groups that entered the mausoleum on Monday claim that it was built after razing a temple. During Zero Hour, Opposition MLAs, primarily from the Samajwadi Party (SP), demanded a debate on the incident, alleging that the ruling dispensation and its affiliates had conspired to 'disturb' communal harmony in the State. They sought accountability and strict action against the accused, claiming that local BJP leaders had incited the crowd to take over the shrine. Amid the ruckus, the U.P. government informed the House that an FIR had been registered and legal action would be taken as per the rules. Opposition members, however, accused the government of attempting to shield the culprits and raised slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) administration. 'Nefarious design' 'In Fatehpur, the ruling party's people supported the attackers. It seems a coordinated and nefarious design to create division on communal lines, with the claim that the mausoleum belonged to Hindus. The government is trying to disturb communal harmony,' said Mata Prasad Pandey, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. Outside the House, political temperatures rose further. SP president Akhilesh Yadav alleged that the incident in Fatehpur is a sign of the 'fast-decaying BJP'. 'Whenever the BJP and its allies' lies are exposed, a conspiracy is hatched to spoil harmony. The public now understands this trick and will neither fall for nor be misled by such acts. It remains to be seen whether the culprits will be identified by the drones of Lucknow or the drones of Delhi,' Mr. Yadav said. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati urged the government to ensure that no community is allowed to take steps that could create communal tension or harm mutual brotherhood. 'In the ongoing dispute over the existence of a mausoleum and a temple in Fatehpur district, the government must take this matter seriously and act strictly if required,' she wrote on X.