'Living People Declared Dead': SC Asks EC to Be Ready with Facts on Bihar Voter List

New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): An important hearing was held in the Supreme Court on Tuesday on the petitions filed against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list in Bihar. During the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing on behalf of the petitioners, claimed that there are serious errors in this process, even 12 living people have been declared dead in the same constituency. On this, the Election Commission called the errors "natural". The court has directed the Commission to be ready with full facts and figures in the next hearing.

Appearing before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and J. Bagchi, Kapil Sibal, on behalf of RJD MP Manoj Jha, argued that there were huge irregularities in removing names from the voter list. He referred to an incident where a living person was declared dead. In response, advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Election Commission, said that in such a huge process, "it is natural to have some errors here and there". He assured that these mistakes can be corrected as it is only a draft list right now.

After hearing both the parties, the bench told the Election Commission to be fully 'prepared' with facts and figures. The court clarified that questions will be asked on the number of voters before and after the process started, the number of dead and other relevant details. The apex court had made it clear on July 29 itself that it would immediately intervene if there was "large-scale deletion of voters" in the revision of the voter list in Bihar.

It is worth noting that the draft voter list in Bihar was published on August 1 and the final list is to come on September 30. Many opposition parties including RJD, Congress, Trinamool Congress, NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) and Left parties have jointly challenged this decision of the Election Commission. The opposition claims that this process will deprive crores of eligible citizens of their right to vote. At the same time, the Election Commission has justified this process in its affidavit saying that it increases the purity of elections by 'removing ineligible persons' from the voter list.