Top court orders free legal aid for 3.7 lakh people dropped from Bihar voter list

Following the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral records, the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered that all people whose names were left off of Bihar’s final voter list receive free legal help and assistance.

According to the court, each of the 3.7 lakh impacted people needs to have access to paralegal volunteers and legal representation in order to fight their exclusion. A group of petitions contesting the ECI’s June 24 ruling directing the SIR in Bihar were being heard by a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi. The petitioners contended that the revision procedure allowed for arbitrary removals from the voter list without sufficient protections, putting lakhs of citizens at risk of losing their right to vote and jeopardizing free and fair elections.

However, the ECI defended the exercise, claiming that it had the legal authority to make the adjustment in order to guarantee that only eligible persons were included prior to the next Bihar Assembly elections.

The court had requested information on the 3.7 lakh voters whose names had been removed in the revision during a previous hearing. Large-scale deletions had also raised concerns, since it was unclear whether the newly added names were those of previously removed voters or new entrants, even though about 21 lakh voters were added to the final list following almost 65 lakh deletions from the draft roll.

Justice Surya Kant had then remarked that there was confusion about “the identity of this add-on” and whether it represented deleted voters reinstated or entirely new names.

At the outset of Thursday’s hearing, Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the ECI, sought a few minutes to clarify certain points. He told the court that the petitioners’ recent affidavits, alleging wrongful deletions, were “completely false”.

“On the last occasion, an affidavit was given to the court claiming a person’s name was removed after the draft roll. We have inquired into this. It’s false. He never filed the enumeration form, and the booth number itself is wrong,” Dwivedi said, holding that such misstatements misled the court.

“The stamp shows 8th September, the day when this court had already directed that legal aid volunteers would assist people. He could have approached then and applied, but he did not,” he added.

Justice Surya Kant observed, “Now there is a very doubt whether a person by this name exists at all.” Dwivedi added that the ECI had asked authorities to file a detailed response and that the petitioners were now shifting their stance, “saying there are some people who wanted to get enroled for the first time but have not been enroled”.

He urged the court to direct that those who wish to file appeals must do so within the remaining five days before the rolls freeze on October 17.