Excluded Bihar voters can file claims with Aadhaar, says SC

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Friday expressed surprise over 1.6 lakh booth-level agents (BLAs), appointed by 12 political parties in Bihar, filing just two claims for inclusion in the electoral roll, which was prepared after a special intensive revision of the voter list and excluded 65 lakh voters for three reasons – dead, duplicate or migrated. It also suggested to the Election Commission to consider Aadhaar as a standalone identification document for inclusion in the electoral list for excluded voters. It also refused to extend the Sept 1 deadline for submission of claims and objections, while saying that they could reconsider the decision if the numbers seeking inclusion and protesting exclusion swell. The bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi emphasised the importance of the participation of political parties in the preparation of the voter list, saying it is vital for the elections and crucial for democracy. It impleaded 12 parties – Congress, BJP, BSP, AAP, CPM and NPP (national parties) and RJD, JD(U), LJP (Ram Vilas), CPI-ML(L), RLJP and RLSP (state parties) in the present proceedings and directed their BLAs to facilitate the eligible to get their names included in the electoral roll. Issuing notice to the state presidents, working presidents and general secretaries of these 12 political parties, the bench asked the Bihar chief electoral officer to inform the top functionaries of the state units of the parties to remain present in SC with their status report on SIR on Sept 8, the next date of hearing. The court, however, recorded claims by politician-petitioners that EC was not permitting BLAs to file claims/objections. SC’s observation about 1.6 lakh BLAs finding only two cases of unjustified deletions from the voter rolls led EC counsel Rakesh Dwivedi to repeatedly highlighted the contrast between protests by political parties against SIR and the lack of any effort to ensure the inclusion of voters who, according to them, have been left out.