NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the 11 documents required for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the poll-bound Bihar show the electoral roll revision is "voter-friendly" compared to the seven documents needed for a summary revision.
"The number of documents in summary revision conducted earlier in the state was seven and in SIR it is 11, which shows it is voter friendly. We understand your arguments that non-acceptance of Aadhaar is exclusionary but a high number of documents is actually inclusionary," the bench said according to news agency PTI.
Also read: SC on Bihar SIR showdown; what happened during yesterday's hearing
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, which resumed hearing on a batch of pleas challenging the June 24 decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct SIR in poll bound Bihar, said despite petitioners' arguments that non-acceptance of Aadhaar was exclusionary, it appeared the large number of documents was "actually inclusionary".
The top court noted electors were required to submit any one of the 11 documents on the list.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the petitioners, disagreed and submitted the number of documents may be high but they had the least coverage.
Giving an example of passport availability with the electors, Singhvi said it was only one to two per cent in Bihar and they have no provision for permanent resident certificates given in the state.
"If we see the availability of documents with the population in Bihar it can be seen the coverage is very low," he said.
The bench said the coverage of 36 lakh of passport holders in the state appears to be good.
"The list of documents is prepared normally after taking feedback from various government departments to ensure maximum coverage," Justice Bagchi pointed out.
On August 12, the Supreme Court said that including or excluding citizens and non-citizens from electoral rolls was within the Election Commission’s remit. It backed the poll panel’s decision to not treat Aadhaar and voter cards as conclusive proof of citizenship in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar’s voters’ list.
Amid the escalating row over the ongoing SIR in and outside Parliament, the court noted the dispute was “largely a trust deficit issue.” The EC has maintained that about 6.5 crore of Bihar’s 7.9 crore voters did not need to submit any documents for themselves or their parents if their names were in the 2003 electoral rolls.
"The number of documents in summary revision conducted earlier in the state was seven and in SIR it is 11, which shows it is voter friendly. We understand your arguments that non-acceptance of Aadhaar is exclusionary but a high number of documents is actually inclusionary," the bench said according to news agency PTI.
Also read: SC on Bihar SIR showdown; what happened during yesterday's hearing
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, which resumed hearing on a batch of pleas challenging the June 24 decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct SIR in poll bound Bihar, said despite petitioners' arguments that non-acceptance of Aadhaar was exclusionary, it appeared the large number of documents was "actually inclusionary".
The top court noted electors were required to submit any one of the 11 documents on the list.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the petitioners, disagreed and submitted the number of documents may be high but they had the least coverage.
Giving an example of passport availability with the electors, Singhvi said it was only one to two per cent in Bihar and they have no provision for permanent resident certificates given in the state.
"If we see the availability of documents with the population in Bihar it can be seen the coverage is very low," he said.
The bench said the coverage of 36 lakh of passport holders in the state appears to be good.
"The list of documents is prepared normally after taking feedback from various government departments to ensure maximum coverage," Justice Bagchi pointed out.
On August 12, the Supreme Court said that including or excluding citizens and non-citizens from electoral rolls was within the Election Commission’s remit. It backed the poll panel’s decision to not treat Aadhaar and voter cards as conclusive proof of citizenship in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar’s voters’ list.
Amid the escalating row over the ongoing SIR in and outside Parliament, the court noted the dispute was “largely a trust deficit issue.” The EC has maintained that about 6.5 crore of Bihar’s 7.9 crore voters did not need to submit any documents for themselves or their parents if their names were in the 2003 electoral rolls.
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