SC on SIR: More papers accepted, voter-friendly, not exclusionary

HEARING PETITIONS CHALLENGING the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in Bihar, the Supreme Court said Wednesday that the Election Commission (EC), expanding the list of documents accepted for proof of identity to 11, compared to only seven for the summary revision in Jharkhand earlier, showed that the process is "voter-friendly and not voter exclusionary".

- ANANTHAKRISHNAN G

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi also said that according to Section 21 of The Representation Of The People Act, 1950, "it is totally within the subjective domain" of the EC on "how, when" it would "go for a special (intensive) revision".

"The documents for the summary exercise compared to the enumeration form as of now, more or less overlap with something more...They are expanding the number of documents of identity...We understand your exclusionary argument may be with regard to Aadhaar, but the expansion of the number of documents from what was followed in a summary revision to an intensive revision is, in fact, voter-friendly and not voter-exclusionary. It gives you more options," Justice Bagchi said.