By Arun Srivastava
Quite intriguing, notwithstanding agreeing to the submission of petitioners, especially of the Association of Democratic Reforms, the Supreme Court has refused to pass order restraining ECI from publishing the draft voter list implying the implementation of its plan to remove names of nearly 1 crore Dalits, OBC and EBC from the existing voters’ list. The reluctance is quite worrying. Questions are making the rounds of the judicial corridors, why the SC is unwilling to fetter ECI, which has not been abiding by its request.
At the first hearing on July 10, the SC simply made a request to “consider” its suggestion. On that day itself ECI had made clear its dubious intention of carrying out the exercise. Some five days back the ECI had made a public remark that it was not possible to accept Aadhaar, Ration Card and EPIC as valid documents as these could be fraudulently created. The SC did not ask the ECI what were the compulsions that ECI was hell bent on negating its own instruments, which were created spending crores of the hard earned money of the common people.
Again on July 28 the Supreme Court refused to stop the ECI from publishing the draft electoral rolls for Bihar on August 1 as per the schedule notified for the Special Intensive Revision. What has indeed come as a great shock is SC seeking to know from the ECI why it has deliberately ignored its July 10 suggestion to “consider” inclusion of Aadhaar and EPIC as proof. In a normal situation ECI refusing to listen to request of SC virtually amounted to insulting the highest judicial authority of the country.
Justice Surya Kant observed that it was, after all, a draft list and the Court can ultimately strike down the entire process if any illegality was found. Sankaranarayanan then requested Justice Kant to make an observation that the process will be “subject to the outcome of the petitions.” Justice Kant said that such an observation was not necessary as it was understood.
Justice Kant’s observation did not reflect the urgency the issue desired. His observation lacked practical approach. Why to allow the situation to stretch to the point of no return? The present exercise has already cost huge exchequer, human resources, time and energy. The administrative work has come to standstill for last one month. Is not better to have the exercise stop at this stage and revaluate and review it.
In this backdrop suggestion of Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan need to be taken seriously. He had urged the bench to stop the notification of the draft list, saying that it is going to inconvenience about “4.5 crores” of voters. Once the draft list is published, the persons excluded will have to take personal steps to file objections and to seek inclusions. It would certainly no be feasible for an individual voter to approach the court for redressal.
It was the reluctance of the ECI that on July 29 , Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymala Bagchi had to ask afresh the ECI to accept Aadhaar and EPIC as the genuine documents. Once again, the bench did not come out with an order. The court will take up the matter on August 12. The bench however said that instead of deleting all the names, the ECI should review on case to case basis. Judges’ have nevertheless dropped sufficient indications that the 65 lakhs names which ECI was planning to remove from the list will be able to exercise their franchise in November.
Strange enough the ECI is unwilling to accept the Aadhaar, Ration Card and EPIC as genuine documents and depends on the documents of domicile provided by the state government. One of such documents which has found place in the public domain is smears the face of the ECI and questions its entire functioning. A certificate has been issued by the Government of Bihar for a “Dog Babu”, son of a “Kutta Babu (father)” and Kutia Devi (mother), resident of a suburb of Patna, the state capital.
ECI refusing to abide by the suggestions of the Supreme Court, has enraged the people of Bihar and at the Public Hearing of the utility and relevance of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), held in Patna demanded abrogation of the entire exercise. The public hearing by the panel of the eminent citizens while decried the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) as a severe blow to the peoples’ recently constitutional rights to vote, it also in an explicit exhortation asked the ECI to immediately stop this exercise as the prevailing ground level situation is not congenial for carrying out the exercise.
The panel strongly refuted ECI argument that it was not a hasty exercise. While observing that the SIR as imprudent and unfeasible, the panel observed that it was being carried hastily at a time when the state and the people are rolling under floods and it is not possible for them to get the required documents and upload. The exercise coincides with farmers’ busy with the farming works. It also observed that the BLOs are not properly trained to carry out the task.
Instead it candidly pointed out that running such a process in such a short time in which millions of documents have to be uploaded and checked is quite impractical. Moreover, this process is being done at a time when Bihar is flooded and people in the rural areas are completely busy in farming. It is worth noting that the BLOs working at the ground level have not been trained properly.
Panel was of the strong view that the ECI was adopting shortcut and this was not right. It mentioned due to work pressure and less time, BLOs are uploading the forms without the relevant documents. The forms are also being filled in a hurry in which only Aadhaar and mobile number are being taken. Signatures of the people are also not taken. Many people said that when they went to check online, they found out that the forms had been filled without their knowledge.
The most damaging remark that was made by the panel was: that the entire process was bereft of any regularity and the rules were being completely trampled and ignored. While it emphasised that it is so difficult to follow the rules of this process in such a short time, it also underlined that people were not being given receipts; BLOs are not able to visit houses, pre-filled forms are not being given to people as per rules, signatures are being forged and bribes have been reported in many places.
As if these were not enough, the panel accused the ECI of catering fake or unreliable information: Since information is being collected in such a hurry without verification, the information that is being uploaded is fake or unreliable. Due to which people will face a lot of problems later. This defeats the purpose of this process.
In the Public Hearing, many people stated that they had to leave their work and spend time in the process of filling the form, due to which they lost their wages. Many people said that they had to spend money to fill the form (many people paid Rs. 100 to fill the form). Many of the people do not have one of the 11 documents that the Election Commission is demanding. A survey by Bharat Jodo Abhiyan found that 37% of people do not have those documents. In another survey on migrant workers this figure is stated to be 33%. Thus, 33-37% of people do not have the necessary documents and may be left out. Obviously, so many voters cannot be excluded.
It terms the entire exercise as an act of exclusion. Not getting one’s name in the voter list is the biggest fear of the people. The right to vote is a constitutional right. No one can be deprived of the right to vote just because of not having documents. For the first time, such a process is being done where documents are being sought from the voter, not following an established process. Then on what basis is the ERO adding or removing people from the draft voter list? The SIR process is giving the ERO the power to add and remove names arbitrarily, which can be easily misused.
The most glaring has been the observation that people nurse great fear that due to the arbitrary power inherent in the process, some specific communities, areas, classes or assembly constituencies can be targeted and deprived of votes. Many people expressed such views in the public hearing which seems to indicate that the rules are not being implemented uniformly. Some are being treated strictly while others are being given leniency. The danger of arbitrary additions and deletions increases further in the next phase when the necessary documents will be taken (so far, mostly only forms have been taken and not the documents).
The panel in its report mentioned that the women are facing special problems because they are being asked to bring documents from their parents. Many women from Nepal in the border areas have been living in India for many years after marriage and are also voting, but now their names can be removed.
The ECI through the SIR exercise has conspired to disenfranchise around 94 lakh voters in Bihar. This was revealed to the apex court by the ADR, which also alleged that the electoral registration officers (EROs) have been uploading the enumeration forms of voters who never filled them in or signed them. Bihar’s adult population was projected at 8.18 crore. However, according to the ECI, the number of voters after completion of SIR would go down to 7.24 crore. (IPA Service)
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