The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to accept Aadhaar cards in addition to the 11 already listed documents for individuals participating in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
A Bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi emphasised that the process must be made more accessible to voters. The Court stated that Aadhaar being one of the most widely held identity documents should not be excluded from the list of acceptable proofs. “We will allow online submission of claims of deleted voters with Aadhaar card or any other acceptable documents for Bihar SIR,” the Bench stated.
The directive comes amid a political row over the removal of 65 lakh names from Bihar’s draft electoral rolls, part of the SIR exercise ahead of the state elections. The Supreme Court had earlier ordered the EC to publish the list of excluded voters by 19 August and submit a compliance report by 22 August.
According to the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar, the names of voters marked as ‘ASD’, Absentee, Shifted, or Dead have now been published online and displayed at polling booths across several districts, including Darbhanga, Purnea, Siwan, Rohtas, and Bhojpur.
Criticism had been mounting over the fact that Aadhaar was not accepted for verification, despite being a more commonly held document compared to several of the 11 allowed by the EC.
The Supreme Court further allowed voters to submit their claims online as well as through physical forms. It directed that Booth Level Agents (BLAs) must actively assist voters in the process and ensure forms are submitted correctly along with Aadhaar or any of the other approved documents. The Court also instructed that acknowledgement receipts be issued to BLAs who file claims on behalf of individuals.
Expressing concern over the lack of initiative by political parties, the Bench said it was “surprised” that so few objections had been raised despite more than 1.68 lakh BLAs being deployed across Bihar. “After appointing BLAs, what are they doing? Why is there a distance between people and local political persons? Political parties must assist voters,” the Court remarked.
It directed the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar to implead major political parties in the proceedings and asked each of them to file a report on how many claims they had helped facilitate. The matter has been scheduled for further hearing on 8 September.
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the EC, requested a 15-day window to demonstrate that genuine voters had not been wrongly removed. "Political parties are making hue and cry and things are not bad. Repose faith in us and give us some more time. We will be able to show there are no exclusions,” he told the court.
Meanwhile, the Congress sharply criticised the EC’s handling of the exercise. Party general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the Supreme Court’s intervention had prevented a serious threat to democratic integrity. “Democracy has survived a brutal assault from the Election Commission of India (ECI),” Ramesh said. “So far, the EC's approach has been obstructionist and contrary to the interests of the voters,” he added, while welcoming the Court’s move to involve political parties in the oversight process.
The SIR, Bihar’s first major voter list revision since 2003, has seen the total number of registered voters fall from 7.9 crore to 7.24 crore. Opposition parties have alleged that thousands of genuine voters were removed without proper verification or public notice.
The Supreme Court, in response, has called for a transparent, voter-friendly process to rebuild public trust and ensure fair electoral participation ahead of the state’s upcoming polls. “The exercise must be voter friendly,” the Court reiterated, urging all stakeholders to uphold democratic accountability.
