Voters excluded from Bihar draft rolls can submit applications online with Aadhaar, says SC

The Supreme Court on Friday said voters excluded from Bihar’s draft electoral rolls can apply online for inclusion by submitting their Aadhaar cards or any of the 11 documents recognised by the Election Commission, Live Law reported.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi further directed the 12 recognised political parties in Bihar to instruct their booth-level agents to assist voters in their booths with the submission of forms, Bar and Bench reported.

The court is hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the voter roll revision in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections, expected in October or November.

The draft roll published on August 1 showed that 65.6 lakh names were removed from the list. Of these, 22 lakh were due to deaths, 36 lakh were of people who had permanently shifted or were untraceable and seven lakh were duplicate entries, the Election Commission had said at the time.

On Friday, the bench also expressed surprise that Bihar had over 1.6 lakh booth-level agents from political parties, but only two objections have been filed as per the Election Commission, Bar and Bench reported.

Some political parties, however, told the court that their booth-level agents were not being allowed to file objections, Live Law reported.

The court also directed booth-level officers to issue acknowledgement receipts for objections submitted by booth-level agents wherever physical...

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