Bihar voter roll revision should be aimed at mass inclusion, not exclusion: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Monday said the Election Commission should focus on “mass inclusion” rather than “en masse exclusion” while revising the electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections, The Hindu reported.

The court reiterated its July 10 directions asking the poll body to consider adding Aadhaar cards and voter identity cards to the list of valid documents for the ongoing exercise. However, it refused to restrain the Election Commission from publishing the draft voter list on August 1.

The court will on Tuesday fix a time for the final hearing of the case, PTI reported.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the Election Commission’s decision to exclude the two documents from the list of acceptable proof of citizenship for those whose names did not appear in the 2003 electoral roll.

In an affidavit filed on July 21, the poll body maintained that Aadhaar and ration cards could not be included as standalone valid documents. It argued that such documents can be obtained through fraudulent means, which was why they were not sufficient.

In response to this, the court said that any of the documents listed by the poll body could be forged and questioned the rationale behind excluding Aadhaar and voter identity card from its...

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