Consider Aadhaar, other IDs in Bihar drive, Supreme Court tells Election Commission
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to also consider Aadhaar cards, voter IDs and ration cards, as acceptable proof of eligibility for inclusion in electoral rolls in its ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of the list in Bihar, even as it agreed to examine whether the poll body’s exercise violated legal provisions or could potentially lead to mass disenfranchisement ahead of assembly elections due later this year.
Underlining that the matter “goes to the root of the functioning of the democratic republic” and involves “the right to vote,” a bench of justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi said it would examine three key questions — ECI’s powers to conduct such an exercise, the manner in which the SIR is being conducted, and its timing, and fixed the matter for next hearing on July 28.
The court also directed the poll body to file its counter affidavit within a week and noted that no interim order was being passed at this stage since, by ECI’s own schedule, the draft electoral rolls were to be published on August 1. “We are of the prima facie view that it will be in the interest of justice if ECI also considers Aadhaar, voter ID cards, and ration cards among the acceptable documents for enumeration,” the bench said.
It also observed that the draft rolls should not be finalised until then, a direction that came after the court expressed serious doubt whether the massive state-wide exercise could be completed within ECI’s strict timeline.
The developments sparks polarised reactions, with the Bharatiya Janata Party underlining that the court had not stopped the exercise and the Congress called it a “relief for democracy”.