Observing there should be “en masse inclusion” instead of “en masse exclusion” in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters’ list in poll-bound Bihar, the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Election Commission to continue accepting Aadhaar and voter ID Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC).
Underscoring the “presumption of genuineness” of the two documents, the top court also refused to stay the publication of the draft electoral roll in Bihar.
The draft roll is scheduled to be published on August 1 and the final roll on September 30 amid opposition claims that the ongoing exercise will deprive crores of eligible citizens from their right to vote.
The remarks by the apex court came on a day when several MPs of the INDIA bloc parties, including Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress parliamentary party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, protested in the Parliament House complex the EC’s voter roll revision and demanded its rollback.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi while asking the poll panel to continue accepting Aadhaar and voter ID for the SIR exercise in Bihar in compliance with its order said both documents had a “presumption of genuineness”.
“As far as ration cards are concerned we can say they can be forged easily but Aadhaar and voter cards have some sanctity and have presumption of genuineness. You continue accepting these documents.”
The bench would on July 29 fix the time schedule to conduct the final hearing of the matter. It then asked the lawyers appearing for different parties to submit the timeline and the time they required for arguments by July 29.
SIR: SC asks EC to accept Aadhaar, EPIC
NEW DELHI, JUL 28 (PTI)
