Supreme Court directs ECI to publish list of 65 lakh deleted voters

Congress party workers in Mumbai stage a protest against electoral rolls revision. Pic/PTI

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to publish details of 65 lakh deleted names from the voters list with reasons of non-inclusion to enhance transparency in Bihar's special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral roll.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi passed the order while hearing pleas challenging the June 24 ECI decision to conduct the SIR. It directed the list of 65 lakh voters whose names featured in the electoral roll but dropped from the draft roll published on August 1.

The list comprising names of those who have died, migrated or moved to other constituencies was directed to be displayed along with reasons at the panchayat level office and the office of district level returning officers.

The top court also allowed people aggrieved by the deletion of their names to approach the poll officials along with their Aadhaar card. The bench while posting the matter for August 22, asked the poll panel to file a compliance report of its direction.

On August 1, the reasons cited by the EC for non-inclusion of previously registered voters in the draft rolls included death (22.34 lakh), "permanently shifted/absent" (36.28 lakh) and "already enrolled (at more than one places)" (7.01 lakh).

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