THE JHARKHAND STORY DESK
New Delhi, August 6: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has been directed to submit details of nearly 65 lakh voters removed from Bihar’s draft voter list by Saturday, August 9, as per an order issued by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The court also instructed the Commission to share this information with the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the political parties that filed petitions in the matter.
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The case pertains to the ECI’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) campaign launched in Bihar on June 24 this year, following which the EC released the draft voter list on August 1. The list currently includes 7.24 crore registered voters, but over 65 lakh names have been deleted.
According to the Election Commission, these names were removed because the individuals had either passed away or permanently relocated to another place.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan, and N. Kotiswar Singh directed the Election Commission to provide the court with details of every voter whose name was deleted, along with the specific reason for removal.
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Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the NGO, argued that while political parties have received the list of deleted voters, it does not specify how many were due to death and how many due to migration.
As per the Commission’s data, approximately 22.34 lakh voters were removed due to death, 36.28 lakh were deleted for permanent relocation, and 7.01 lakh names were struck off because they appeared in more than one location.
