New Delhi, July 28: Underscoring the “presumption of genuineness” of Aadhaar and voter ID, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay the publication of draft electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar and said it would once and for all decide pleas against Election Commission’s special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The top court asked the poll panel to continue accepting Aadhaar and voter ID for the SIR exercise in Bihar in compliance with its order, saying 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,” a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said.
The bench would on July 29 fix the time schedule to conduct the final hearing of the matter.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, said the electoral rolls should not be finalised in the interim, pressing for an interim stay on the publication of the draft rolls on August 1.
The bench, however, referred to the top court’s previous order noting the petitioners did not press for an interim relief, which couldn’t be allow now and said the matter would be interpreted once and for all.
Sankaranarayanan said the interim relief of stay on the publication was not pressed as the top court had assured that the matter would be listed for hearing before August 1.
The bench noted the election commission’s statement that the enumeration forms for the SIR could be submitted even after the publication of draft rolls.
“Don’t undermine the power of the court. Trust us. If the court agrees with your submission and if any illegality is found, then this court will quash everything then and there,” the bench said.
On July 10, a bench headed by Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia asked the EC to consider Aadhaar, voter ID and ration cards as valid documents as it allowed the poll panel to continue with its exercise in Bihar.
The top court on Monday said it prima facie agreed with the July 10 order and the Election Commission of India (ECI) accepted in its counter affidavit that Aadhaar, voter cards and ration cards could be accepted.
While expressing its reservation on ration cards, the bench endorsed the “presumption of genuineness” of the other two documents.
Sankaranarayanan said despite ECI’s assertion in the counter affidavit of accepting Aadhaar and voter cards, ground reports suggested otherwise.
Justice Kant said the election commission suggested the list of 11 documents for SIR was not inclusive but exhaustive and they were using both Aadhaar and voter IDs for the purpose of identification.
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for election commission, said Aadhaar was not a proof of citizenship and voter card was not relied upon as it was a revision exercise or else there was no use of such an exercise.
Justice Kant then remarked, “Any document on earth can be forged. The election commission can deal with cases of forgery on a case to case basis. Instead of en masse exclusion it must be en masse inclusion.”
Justice Bagchi, on the other hand, referred to the election commission saying none of the 11 documents referred for SIR were conclusive and asked why couldn’t someone uploading only Aadhaar be included.
Dwivedi said the poll panel was accepting both Aadhaar and voter IDs but with certain supporting documents.
The bench asked the lawyers appearing for different parties to submit the timeline and the time they required for arguments by July 29.
The EC affidavit has justified its ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, saying it adds to the purity of the election by “weeding out ineligible persons” from the electoral rolls.
The poll panel, while justifying its June 24 decision directing the SIR, has said all major political parties were “involved” in the exercise and deployed more than 1.5 lakh booth-level agents to reach out to eligible voters, but opposed it in the apex court.
The SIR adds to the purity of elections by weeding out ineligible persons from the electoral rolls, the ECI has said in a detailed affidavit filed to counter the allegations of petitioners, which include several political leaders, civil society members and organisations.
In a rejoinder affidavit, the petitioner NGO claimed the electoral registration officers were vested with broad and unchecked discretion that could result in disenfranchisement of a significant segment of Bihar’s population. (PTI)
