SC to hear pleas against Bihar electoral roll revision on July 10

New Delhi, Jul 9 (PTI) The Supreme Court will on Thursday hear the challenge against Election Commission of India's decision for a special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.

The updated causelist shows a bench comprising Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi has over 10 related matters listed for hearing on July 10.

On Wednesday, it agreed to hear a fresh plea of two social activists, Arshad Ajmal and Rupesh Kumar, challenging the decision of the poll panel to undertake extensive revision of electoral rolls in the state.

The activists have said the exercise undermines the principles of free and fair elections and representative democracy, both integral features of the Constitution's basic structure by introducing arbitrary, unreasonable and disproportionate documentation requirements related to birth, residence and citizenship.

Besides, lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay has filed a separate plea supporting the move and sought a direction to the poll panel to conduct the SIR in order to ensure only Indian citizens decided the polity and policy "not the illegal foreign infiltrators".

"Demography of 200 districts and 1,500 tehsils have changed after the independence due to massive illegal infiltration, deceitful religious conversion and population explosion. Demography is destiny, and dozens of districts have already seen their destiny being shaped by those who aren't Indians," he said.

On July 7, the bench noted the submissions of lawyers led by senior counsel Kapil Sibal, who was representing several petitioners, and agreed to hear the pleas on July 10.

Sibal, who is representing RJD MP Manoj Jha, urged the bench to issue notices to the poll panel on the petitions, calling it an "impossible task" within the timeline as elections were to happen in the state in November.

Senior advocate Abhishek M Singhvi, appearing for another petitioner, said of the eight crore voters in the state, four crore voters would have to submit their documents under the exercise.

"The timeline is so strict, and if by July 25 you don't submit the documents, you will be out," Singhvi added.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for another petitioner, said the poll panel was not accepting Aadhaar cards and voter ID cards as proof for the exercise.

Posting the matter on July 10, Justice Dhulia said the timeline, at present, did not have sanctity as elections hadn't been notified yet.

The bench asked the petitioners to give advance notice of their petitions to the counsel for Election Commission of India.

Beside RJD MP Jha and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress' K C Venugopal, Supriya Sule from the Sharad Pawar NCP faction, D Raja from Communist Party of India, Harinder Singh Malik from Samajwadi Party, Arvind Sawant from Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), Sarfraz Ahmed from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Dipankar Bhattacharya of CPI (ML) have jointly moved the top court.

All leaders have challenged the Election Commission's order directing for SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar and sought direction for its quashing.

Jha, in his plea filed through advocate Fauzia Shakil, argues the EC's June 24 order be quashed for being violative of Articles 14 (fundamental right to equality), 21 (fundamental right to life and liberty), 325 (no person can be excluded from electoral roll based on caste, religion and sex) and 326 (every citizen of India who has attained 18 years of age is eligible to be registered as a voter) of the Constitution.

"While the ECI has decided to commence the SIR in the entire country, the process has been initiated first in the state of Bihar, owing to the upcoming elections in the latter part of the year.

"The impugned order prescribes a schedule and requires the submission of enumeration form within 30 days, followed by filing of claims and objections and their disposal within 30 days," the plea said.

The order was stated to be "discriminatory, unreasonable and manifestly arbitrary and violates Article 14, 21 325, 326".

Jha continued, "Moreover, this exercise has been launched during the monsoon season in Bihar, when many districts in Bihar are affected by floods and local population is displaced, thereby making it extremely difficult and almost impossible for a large section of population to meaningfully participate in the process."

One of the most affected classes, he said, were the migrant workers, many of whom despite remaining listed in the 2003 voter rolls, are unlikely to be able to return to Bihar within the stipulated time frame of 30 days to submit their enumeration forms leading to automatic deletion of their names from the electoral rolls.

Jha questioned the short deadlines, saying it make the whole process unreasonable and unworkable.

Moitra sought a direction from the apex court to restrain the EC from issuing similar orders for SIR of electoral rolls in other states of the country. PTI