Aadhaar, Voter Card Not ‘Conclusive Proof’ Of Citizenship: Supreme Court In Bihar SIR Hearing
The Supreme Court stated that Aadhaar cards and EPIC are not proof of citizenship during a Bihar SIR case hearing. Kapil Sibal, representing petitioners, argued these documents were being rejected.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday described the controversy over Bihar’s special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls as “largely a trust deficit issue” while affirming that the inclusion or exclusion of citizens and non-citizens from voter lists falls within the remit of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, hearing multiple petitions including those by leaders from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress, questioned the petitioners and stressed that inadvertent errors—such as declaring a living person dead or vice versa—could be corrected, news agency PTI reported.
Bihar SIR: Supreme Court Upholds EC’s Stance on Aadhaar as Proof
The bench endorsed the ECI’s decision not to accept Aadhaar and voter cards as conclusive proof of citizenship, noting that other documents must also support such claims. “You see, the election commission is correct in saying that Aadhar can’t be accepted as conclusive proof of citizenship, it has to be verified. Section 9 of the Aadhaar Act specifically says so,” the judges told senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, representing one of the petitioners, as quoted by PTI.
Singhvi argued that between the last intensive revision in 2003 and the current one, many individuals had voted in five or six elections. He accused the poll panel of “declaring five crore people invalid” just two months before the elections. While conceding that the ECI could include or exclude citizens and non-citizens from the rolls, he contended that it “cannot become the determiner of citizenship”.
Bihar SIR: Sibal Flags Document Hurdles for Voters
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for RJD leader Manoj Jha, said residents with Aadhaar, ration and EPIC cards were still being turned away by poll officials. The bench responded, “Is it your argument that people who have no documents but are in Bihar and therefore he should be considered as a voter of the state. That can be allowed. He has to show or submit some documents (sic).”
When Sibal highlighted difficulties in procuring parental birth certificates, Justice Kant observed, “It is a very sweeping statement that in Bihar nobody has the documents. If this happens in Bihar, then what will happen in other parts of the country?”
The ECI, in its submissions, stated that 6.5 crore of the total 7.9 crore voters did not need to submit documents since they or their parents were on the 2003 rolls. The bench told Sibal that with 7.24 crore voters responding to the SIR, the theory of one crore disenfranchised voters was “demolished”.
Bihar SIR: Activists Question Data, Timeline
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, for NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, raised concerns over the timeline for completing the exercise and the classification of 65 lakh voters as dead, migrated or registered elsewhere.
Political activist Yogendra Yadav alleged that the SIR was designed “to delete the voters” and that booth-level officers conducted house-to-house visits only to remove names. He produced three individuals in court who were allegedly declared dead by the ECI.
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the poll panel, objected to “such drama in the courtroom” and suggested that Yadav help update the records instead. He emphasised that the process was still in the draft stage and any mistakes could be rectified.
The hearing will continue on Wednesday. The draft electoral roll was released on 1 August, and the final list is due on 30 September. In its affidavit, the ECI defended the SIR as an exercise to maintain the “purity of the election” by removing ineligible names from the rolls.
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