‘Bound to have defects’: EC defends Bihar voter roll exercise; SC seeks details | India News
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday began hearing multiple pleas against the Election Commission’s decision to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi heard senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing RJD leader Manoj Jha, who alleged discrepancies — including cases where people listed as dead were found alive, and vice versa.The poll panel said an exercise of this nature was “bound to have some defects here and there.” The bench told the EC to “be ready” with data on voter numbers and other relevant details, as reported by PTI.On July 29, the top court warned it would step in immediately if there was “mass exclusion” of voters. The draft roll was published on August 1, with the final version due on September 30. Opposition parties claim the process could disenfranchise crores of eligible voters.The pleas have been jointly filed by leaders from RJD, Trinamool Congress, Congress, NCP (Sharad Pawar), CPI, SP, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), JMM, CPI (ML), along with PUCL, ADR and activist Yogendra Yadav, challenging the EC’s June 24 decision.
