Bihar SIR: CEO dismisses allegations of duplicate voters in draft rolls; calls claims ‘speculative’

NEW DELHI: The Bihar Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Sunday dismissed media reports alleging large-scale duplication in the state’s draft electoral rolls (SIR 2025), calling the claims “speculative, premature, and contrary to law.”In a post on X, the CEO emphasised that the SIR is a statutory exercise conducted under the Representation of the People Act 1950 and the Registration of Electors Rules 1960. “The SIR is an ongoing statutory process carried out under the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Registration of Electors Rules,” the CEO said. The Bihar CEO clarified that the current draft rolls are not final. “They are explicitly intended for public scrutiny, inviting claims and objections from electors, political parties, and all other stakeholders. Any alleged duplication at the draft stage cannot be construed as a ‘final error’ or ‘illegal inclusion’, as the law provides a remedy through the claims/objections period and subsequent verification by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs),” the post read. Addressing the media report’s claim of 67,826 “dubious duplicates,” the CEO said, “The figure is based on data mining and subjective matching of name/relative/age combinations. These parameters, without documentary and field verification, cannot conclusively prove duplication. In Bihar, especially in rural constituencies, it is common for multiple individuals to share identical names, parental names, and even similar ages. The Supreme Court has recognised such demographic similarities as insufficient proof of duplication without field inquiry.” The CEO further explained that all demographically similar entries flagged during the draft stage undergo field verification and can be challenged by stakeholders during the ongoing claims and objections period. “Nevertheless, if demographically similar entries are found, they are being identified and removed during the claims and objections period. In such cases, all stakeholders can inform the Electoral Registration Officer, file their objections, and necessary action can be taken,” the CEO added.The CEO also rejected claims that rolls were “locked” to hide duplication, saying safeguards were in place to protect data integrity, citing a 2018 Supreme Court ruling. It further dismissed extrapolations suggesting lakhs of duplicates as “legally untenable” without verified evidence. Reaffirming the legal process, the Commission noted that Section 22 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 empowers EROs to delete duplicates if proven, and any elector or political party can formally raise objections.