The Supreme Court will hear today the petitions challenging the Election Commission of India's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.A bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi will hear the matter at 2 PM. On the last hearing, the Court had sought the details of the additional persons(about 3.66 lakhs) excluded from and included (about 21 lakhs)...
The Supreme Court will hear today the petitions challenging the Election Commission of India's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
A bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi will hear the matter at 2 PM. On the last hearing, the Court had sought the details of the additional persons(about 3.66 lakhs) excluded from and included (about 21 lakhs) in the final voter list published on September 30.
Follow live updates from the hereing on this page.
Hearing over. Matter adjourned to Oct 16.
J Kant: We have everything in mind. We are proceeding on the premise that authorities know their responsibility
A counsel: People of Bihar are getting affected...elections getting derailed
J Kant: Why are they getting affected? We have clarified everything.
Dwivedi shares an anecdote
Dwivedi: More than 3000 adivasis living on a piece of land. What EC does sometimes is they mention khasra no...
J Kant: There are ground realities...EC has decided to carry out SIR on pan-India basis...maybe this experience will make you wiser
Dwivedi: Criticism also helps us, no problem
Sr Adv Shadan Farasat: on today's order, please continue with existing para legal volunteers. please also say that appeal can be filed without order.
Yadav: This Court may direct EC to disclose no. of persons whose names have been deleted on ground that they were not citizens. That would be great service to the country. I conclude by saying that unless 3 toxic elements are removed, there will be disenfranchisement everywhere - mandatory filing of documents, verification of citizenship...also, EC blamed me about bringing 3 persons without assisting them with their details...it's so embarrassing, it shows multiple failures of EC
J Kant: Does not concern merits. Many things are said across Bar...we don't...
Yadav: So much focus on foreigners - anyone can file complaint. In all, out of 7.4 cr people, only 1087 objections of which 390 were sustained. We don't know if it was on ground of being foreigner. 390 is the upper limit of people who could have been deleted for not being citizen. 796 persons filed applications against themselves on the ground that I am foreigner. Is it possible? What kind of world are we living in? This is EC's own statistic.
Yadav: On additions - of 21 lakh names added, less than 20% belong to 18-19 category...more than 40% are above 25 yrs of age...did they check? More than 6000 people who are over 80 years who have filed for addition...all this from final roll! Little less than 4 lakh objections were filed. some records were uploaded. Would you believe out of 2.42 lakh people who filed objections, 1.40 lakh filed objections to their own name? Saying remove my name from roll. 41 of them are saying I am dead. EC has removed 39 of them from rolls. This is the state of affairs.
Yadav: Many may not be fake voters. But EC's protocol requires physical verification. Do they have a de-duplication software at all? We do not have access to rolls with photos. But from one constituency, please see...in the age of AI, they can clearly see same name, same photo...computer can identify cases, then they can go in field and verify. 1 household with 10 or more voters - EC says there may be something suspicious, it should be verified. 21 lakh such households which have nearly half of Bihar population in final rolls. Is it possible? Why was it not checked? I don't know whether to laugh or cry. India is an IT hub
Dwivedi: So many joint families...
Yadav: 1 house with 100 or more names is definitely suspicious...there are 2200 houses which have 4.5 lakh people in those houses
J Bagchi (jokes): There was some purification. Before SIR, it was 2900
Yadav: We should then complement them.
Yadav: On accuracy - gibberish values. Voters' name are gibberish. [Citing an example] there's no 'nirvachak' name in final rolls... A BLANK IS GOING TO VOTE! A name is in Kannada and Tamil for Bihar rolls! If this is not gibberish, what is gibberish? If I am incorrect, they can correct me tomorrow morning. 4.21,000 cases of wrong house no. 5,24,000 are duplicate names in final list! 3000 more names than draft list. I can give list to my friends.
Yadav: Would EC kindly place records before country how many filed the 11 documents? EC has said gender ratio deterioration should be looked at closely. Gap was getting better till we hit SIR. 20 lakh gap came down to 7 lakh. SIR made that 7 lakh into 16 lakh. 10 years of gains have been wiped out by SIR. I'm sure EC would be concerned. Nothing specific about BIhar in this case, wherever SIR goes, this will happen to women.
J Bagchi comments on voter turnout of rural sections
Yadav: I had written a technical paper proving that India is different...unlike West, as you go down social hierarchy, turnout increases. Why was it only 47 lakhs? Second reason is EC very creatively interpreted its rule for those who were there in 2003. Original order said child had to file own and father's papers...EC later said don't have to file father's papers...I don't know what happened. EC also said to officials that mata, pita nahi bhi milte to nana, chacha, tau jo mile dekh lo
Dwivedi: This is not a lecture room. One has to file affidavit. This nana, chacha...he does not take responsibility for what he says and thinks whole country will listen to him.