New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to publish details of 65 lakh names deleted from Bihar’s electoral rolls, along with the reasons for their removal, to ensure transparency in the Special Comprehensive Revision (SIR) of the state’s voter list.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi passed the order while hearing petitions challenging the ECI’s June 24 decision on the SIR in Bihar.
The bench instructed that the list of deleted voters—whose names were in the previous roll but omitted from the draft list published on August 1—be displayed at panchayat-level offices and district returning officers’ offices, citing reasons such as “deceased,” “migrated,” or “shifted to other constituencies.”
The court further directed that information about the availability of the list be disseminated not only through television and radio but also via local and English daily newspapers. It also allowed affected individuals to approach election authorities with their Aadhaar cards to contest the deletion of their names.
The ECI has been asked to submit a compliance report before the next hearing on August 22. Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the poll panel, said the ECI has ample powers to make such decisions but is operating in an “atmosphere of bitter political animosity” where parties label electronic voting machines “bad” if they lose and “good” if they win.
