The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that everyone has a right to appeal against their exclusion from the voters list prepared as part of the recently-concluded Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar..A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymlaya Bagchi, however, added that the Court cannot devise a solution if it is kept in dark about the people whose names have been deleted without communication of the order to them."If anyone can give us a list that out of these 3.66 lakh voters these are the people to whom orders have not been communicated. We’ll direct them [Election Commission of India] to communicate. Each individual has a right to appeal," the Court remarked.Pertinently, the Court also took note of the petitioners' argument that while 21 lakh voters were added to the final voters' list after around 65 lakh were deleted from the initial draft list, it is not clear whether the ones added back were the ones initially removed or whether they were new names. "There was a 65 lakh deletion which you (Election Commission of India) have published. We said that whoever is dead or moved already but we said if you have deleted someone please put up their data in your district electoral offices. Now from the draft you have got the final list. Final list appears to be an appreciation of numbers. It has gone up from 65. Now there is a confusion. What is the identity of this add on. Is it an add on of the deleted names or add on of independent new names," the Court asked..The counsel representing the ECI said most of them are new voters. The Bench said that the ECI can place the data regarding the same before the Court."You have got the draft list, you have got the final list. The omission is clear. So just call that out and place it before us," said Justice Bagchi..Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners, also weighed in and said that the ECI can do it easily while it will be difficult for each affected individual to come before the Court."There are both additions and deletions. We have to match it with the original list. First 66 lakh were deleted. And how many new people who were not there in the original list have been added. It is very difficult for us to but election commission can do this in one button. But they are not doing it. All these people cannot come to the Supreme Court," he contended. .The Court was earlier told SIR has compounded the problems and the decision about exclusion has not been communicated to the people."The persons who are deleted 3.66 lakh nobody gets a notice. Nobody gets a reason. There is an appellate provision but there is no question of appeal because there is no information," Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing one of the petitioners, said..The Court was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Bihar SIR. It was earlier informed that 65 lakh names were dropped from the draft electoral roll published on August 1. On August 14, the Court directed the ECI to upload the list of these 65 lakh voters proposed to be deleted during the SIR.On August 22, the Court ordered that people excluded from the draft electoral roll can use their Aadhaar cards as ID proof to get themselves included in the voters' list. Before this, the ECI had stated that it would only accept any of eleven other ID documents for this purpose. Later, the Court directed the ECI to issue a formal notice stating that Aadhaar will be accepted as an identity proof document for the inclusion of a voter to the revised voters' list being prepared as part of the SIR..The SIR was completed on September 30. As against 7.89 crore voters on June 24 in Bihar, 7.42 crore electors were retained in the voter list. The number of deletions also came down from 65 lakh to 47 lakh.During the hearing today, advocate Prashant Bhushan, also appearing on the petitioners side, said the data regarding the deletions and additions should be uploaded on website. He also said that psephologist and activist Yogendra Yadav can provide an overview to the Court. Justice Bagchi said he can file an affidavit.Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for ECI, in response said that every person who was deleted has been given the order."The draft list is already published. None of them have amended their petitions. Till today, nobody has filed an appeal or complaint. It’s just ADR, PUCL etc. they are not concerned with the elections. Based on the time schedule which the Act prescribed, the elections have now been fixed in two phases. The schedule will be notified ... We borrow staff from States. None of the petitions have been amended. There is no challenge. But they want data. Data for what?," he saidAdvocate Vrinda Grover, appearing on the petitioners side, submitted that data has not been made available. The Court then said,"Somebody must file an affidavit saying that we are the person affected. If I know that my name is not there in the revised voter list, I can file an affidavit," the Court added.Bhushan said the affidavit will be filed. However, he also said that all the affected people cannot approach the Supreme Court."We will file the affidavit. This may not be made into a fait accompli. We have showed how ... they have deviated from their own rules," he added.At this, Justice Kant said,"The question of probing so much will arise when the are some genuine people. At least 100-200 people saying that they want to file an appeal but no order has come to them.".The matter will be heard next on October 9 when the petitioners are expected to file an affidavit giving further details of deletions..[Read Live Coverage]
