By Arun Srivastava
The Supreme Court wants the voters of Bihar believe the undertaking of the Election Commission that objections or claims for exclusion or inclusion of names in the final voters’ list during the special intensive revision of rolls in poll-bound Bihar would continue till the last day of filing of nominations. This is just against its own observation that confusion was largely due to “trust issue”.
If the SC feels that people of Bihar, in fact the people across country, have no trust in ECI actions and promises made by it, then why not it is exercising its authority to rescind the earlier SIR and direct the ECI to conduct the election on the basis of the last electoral list which was used in Lok Sabha elections. Surprisingly the top court asked the political parties to ‘activate’ themselves.
A firm action was expected from the apex court. But unfortunately its action has given rise to more confusion. Significantly the SC was not willing to extend Bihar SIR exercise, but it believed the ECI undertaking. From the beginning ECI was against scrapping current SIR. But at no stage SC sought a categorical explanation from ECI for this reluctance or find out the reasons for ECI unwillingness to redo the exercise.
The apex court also said that claims, objections and corrections in the electoral roll prepared as part of the SIR exercise can be filed even after September 1, once the list is finalised. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi noted the submission of the poll panel which stated that claims and objections could be filed till the last date of nomination forms in each assembly constituency.
This observation is really ambiguous. It obviously implies that instead of reviewing its own action and amending its approach, the ECI will play safe by putting the onus on the people, who will have to file their claims. The ECI deleted the names based on certain conclusive evidences. It should use the same parameter to add the names. It can well use its man force to verify the double entries of the names in voters’ list.
This move empowers the ECI to use its discretion to accept the claims which would be filed in future. Only on September 1 SC directed the Bihar Legal Service Authority to deploy para-legal volunteers to assist voters, political parties in filing claims, objections to the draft roll, which was published on August 1. Once again it reflects the lack of sincerity on the part of the ECI. If it had no enough human resources, it could have asked the SC at the earlier hearings to opt for the deployment of paralegal volunteers. ECI can evade its responsibility by saying that the SC has taken recourse to this action on its own. But that does not absolve the ECI of its responsibility.
Nevertheless one thing is absolutely clear that all the genuine names of Dalits, proletariats and minorities which were deleted by the ECI with intention of disenfranchising them, would not find place in the list and also face the threat the being declared as persona non-grata. SIR scheme launched by the CEC Gyanesh Kumar at the direction of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah will ultimately succeed in its mission.
Quite significantly ECI advocate Rakesh Dwivedi has already told court, “Any extension of deadline will lead to disruption of the entire exercise and finalisation of final electoral roll.” He said that 99.5 per cent of the 2.74 crore electors in the draft electoral roll had filed the eligibility documents and countered the claims of RJD, which alleged of having filed 36 claims, and said the party had filed only 10 such claims. The Congress on Sunday (August 31, 2025) claimed that it had filed 89 lakh complaints and even was in possession of stamped receipts as evidence, but the ECI refused to have received a single complain.
It is indeed shocking to watch ECI stooping so low. Ironically Commission one of the most trusted public institutions in the world’s largest democracy, is facing a test of its credibility. In the backdrop of opposition parties resorting to massive agitation against deletion, the ECI wants to make the people believe that the parties were not serious. It said that it received only 144 applications; 16 from BJP, 10 from RJD and 118 from CPI (ML) Liberation against the draft rolls comprising names of 7.24 crore electors. It completely erased the name of Congress. What is most interesting is its claim that electors themselves filed nearly 2.53 lakh claims and objections for inclusion of eligible voters and exclusion of ineligible ones, of which 40,630 have already been disposed of. In contrast the Bihar Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) claimed that Congress had sought the deletion of 89 lakh names from the draft electoral rolls through a letter, but it was rejected by him with the directive to provide evidence with an affidavit.
Supreme Court trusting the explanation of CEC has indeed been most surprising. Even after having the bitter taste of ECI’s electoral recipe, it is not willing to express doubt on its clarifications. It is at the first hearing the SC had directed the ECI to add Aadhaar as a tool to verify the citizenship. But till today the ECI has been playing hide and seek. The district and block level ECI officials are not willing to accept Aadhaar as they have not received the instructions from above. Astonishingly Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi ask the aggrieved petitioners to produce before the court valid proof of the EC’s refusal to accept Aadhaar. Do they believe that ECI will furnish a written refusal?
Referring to frequent allegations of Aadhaar not being considered as a valid document by the EC, Justice Kant, heading the bench, said: “Through a court order, we can’t enhance the status of Aadhaar. Whatever value is attached to it by statute, along with judicial decisions, has to be accepted. How many times should we pass that order? Why so much emphasis only on Aadhaar? Show us beyond 65 lakh (excluded voters), they are not accepting Aadhaar.” Even EC lawyer confessed that out of 65 lakh excluded voters, only 33,326 had filed their objections.
On the concluding day of Voter Adhikar Yatra, Rahul Gandhi pledged another explosion of Hydrogen Bomb to exposé ‘to shame Modi’. He threatened the BJP with a bigger “vote chori” exposé. But the legal proceeding in the matter fails to reinforce that amount of confidence. Explosion of Atom Bomb might have shaken the confidence of Modi and Amit, but the CEC Gyanesh Kumar continues with his intrigues.
Rahul or any other INDIA bloc must refrain from nursing the impression that political bombs would do miracle. Modi is famous for his ostrich like behaviour. For him it is the electoral verdict that matters. The revelations that are surfacing in recent days make it absolutely clear that Modi for quite some months have been using the state machinery to win the elections. It would not be exaggeration to say that the process to rig the election across the country was set in motion long back, which unfortunately did not have any inkling.
No doubt Rahul will explode the political hydrogen bomb, but more important is he along with other INDIA leaders must be ready to foil his misuse of the state machinery and judiciary. Once the ECI publishes the final voters’ list, the elections are to held on that basis. We have seen how in the past the judiciary has refrained from intervening in the cases of national importance which ultimately helped BJP and Modi. True enough the three month old judicial exercise in the matter has failed to have any positive result and restore the peoples’ trust in the system.
The only threat perception that hounds the people is with ECI adopting a tough stance and not allowing the poor to vote may witness a eruption of violence in the state. The Dalit and proletariats of Bihar had already sacrificed more than thousand lives in sixties- seventies and eighties, to assert their fundamental right to vote and elect their representative. Violence cannot hide behind the façade of “trust deficit” between the Election Commission and political parties. (IPA Service)
