**Supreme Court Seeks Details from Election Commission on Excluded Voters in Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision**
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Election Commission (EC) to provide details of the 3.66 lakh voters excluded from the final electoral roll prepared after Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
The EC informed the apex court that most of the names added to the electoral roll are new voters and stated that no complaints or appeals have been filed by any excluded voters as of now.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi instructed the poll panel to submit whatever information it obtains regarding the excluded voters by Thursday, October 9, when further hearings will be conducted.
The top court noted that since the draft electoral roll and the final list (published on September 30) are both available, the required data can be furnished through a comparative analysis. The bench added that, given the increase in the number of electors in the final list compared to the draft, disclosing the identity of the added voters is necessary to avoid any confusion.
Responding to the court, EC representative Dwivedi stated that most additions were new voters, with only a few old voters added after the draft roll was published.
On September 30, while publishing the final electoral list for poll-bound Bihar, the EC announced that the total number of electors decreased by nearly 47 lakh to 7.42 crore in the final roll, down from 7.89 crore before the SIR. However, this final figure represents an increase of 17.87 lakh electors from the 7.24 crore named in the draft list issued on August 1, which itself had removed 65 lakh voters from the original list. Essentially, 17.87 lakh new electors were added to the draft list during the process.
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**Congress Criticizes Election Commission Over SIR**
The Congress party on Tuesday criticized the Election Commission, accusing it of lacking the integrity or courage to disclose how many non-citizens were removed from Bihar’s voter list following the SIR exercise.
Congress General Secretary (in-charge communications) Jairam Ramesh shared on X an analysis of the SIR exercise published in a newspaper. The analysis suggested that, although Supreme Court interventions helped ease concerns about mass disenfranchisement, the exercise fell short in terms of accuracy, equity, transparency, and fairness.
Ramesh stated, “This fine analysis shows that the entire SIR exercise bulldozed through by the Election Commission has failed on all three counts of completeness, equity, and accuracy.”
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