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SC Permits Use Of Aadhaar To Challenge Exclusion From Draft Voter List News24 –

National
By Correspondent


Bihar SIR: The Supreme Court on Friday stated that individuals excluded from the draft electoral roll in Bihar during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process can submit Aadhaar card along with the required form to object to their exclusion. The clarification comes as part of efforts to ensure that eligible voters are not left out of the electoral process.

The Bench, comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, stated that individuals can submit their objections using “Any of the 11 documents listed in Form 6 by the Election Commission of India (ECI) or their Aadhaar card.” This implies that people can use Aadhaar as proof to get themselves included in the voters’ list.

The apex court was hearing a group of petitions challenging the Election Commission of India’s June 24 directive to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls ahead of the upcoming Bihar assembly elections.

The Supreme Court also clarified that individuals or Booth Level Agents (BLAs) can submit objections online without submitting physical documents. Additionally, the court has ordered the booth-level officers to provide an acknowledgement receipt when forms are submitted physically.

ECI Files Affidavit

Earlier, the Election Commission filed affidavit in the Supreme Court saying the list of names and details of 65 lakh electors in Bihar who were not included in the draft roll published on August 1 had been posted on the websites of all 38 District Electoral Officers in the state. The list also contains the reasons for their non-inclusion, including death, shifting of ordinary residence or duplicate entries, ECI told Supreme Court.

The affidavit has been filed in compliance of August 14 directions of the Supreme Court directing it to publish an enumerated, booth-wise list of approximately 65 lakh electors not included in the draft electoral roll during the ongoing SIR exercise in poll-bound Bihar.

Congress MP KC Venugopal On SC Directive

As the Supreme Court mandated the Aadhaar as a proof of identity for voters left out of the SIR, Congress MP KC Venugopal welcomed the decision and took to X to share about it.

He wrote, “We welcome the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s latest decision mandating that the ECI must accept Aadhar as a valid proof of identity for voters left out of the SIR. Further, its insistence that the ECI include political parties is a strong reprimand to ECI that has adopted an obstructionist and combative approach to the entire crisis so far. The ECI has been stonewalling attempts from our BLAs who have been complaining. In fact, half of our BLAs were not even acknowledged by the administration. We hope that this stern order by the Supreme Court finally breaks the ECI’s arrogance and it stops its nefarious attempts to steal the vote and evade accountability.”




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