'Timing and not exercise is the problem': Supreme Court on Election Commission's voter list revision drive in Bihar

Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia said as quoted by NDTV, "Your exercise is not the problem... it is the timing. We have serious doubts if you can manage this exercise. With such a big population (an estimated eight crore people) being subject to this 'intensive review', is it possible to link this to the forthcoming election?"

Justice Dhulia noted that individuals who might be excluded from the list after the revision will have no time to appeal against their exclusion before the state elections.

"There is nothing wrong in the exercise... except that a person will be disenfranchised ahead of the election and s/he won't have the time to defend the exclusion before voting," the judge added.

While the petitioners questioned the EC's move to ask for a government ID from existing voters who registered after 2003, the court found the cut-off date "logical".

The petitioners pointed out that the EC won't allow its own voter card or widely-used Aadhaar Card for verification for individuals registered after 2003.

The top court asked three questions to the poll panel on its authority to conduct such a revision, the validity of the review procedure and the timing of the excercise. 

Among the petitioners are Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Manoj Jha, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, activist Yogendra Yadav.

The ECI has launched a Special Intensive Revision as a drive to verify the list of voters, adding names of eligible citizens and trashing the ineligibles.

The poll body said its Booth Level Officers will conduct a door-to-door survey to verify the voters seeing necessary documents.

The opposition parties have lashed out at the ECI over the drive, which the Opposition claims will exclude many genuine voters.

Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge slammed the country's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saying, "Why are people who have been voting election after election being asked to show documents for voting?"

"Forcibly depriving the poor, weak, deprived, Dalit, oppressed, and backward people of their voting rights is the very conspiracy of BJP-RSS. Nearly 8 crore people will suffer because of this. The responsibility to correct the voter list lies with the ECI, not the public."

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav claimed the BJP is sure of a defeat in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections so it conspired with the ECI to snatch away voters' rights.

The former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister wrote on X, "Modi-Nitish are determined to crush the Constitution and democracy and to snatch your voting rights through the Election Commission. These people, seeing a direct defeat, have now become frantic. When the voter's vote itself is eliminated, what democracy and Constitution will remain?"

The Bihar polls are expected to be held in the last quarter of the current year.