Explained | Rules of Special Intensive Revision of Bihar electoral rolls

New Delhi: Children of around 4.96 crore people who have their names in the 2003 electoral rolls of Bihar need not provide any document relating to their parents during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the Election Commission said on Monday.

Such voters, whose parents’ names are found in the 2003 voters’ list, need to only provide documents related to them to prove their date and place of birth as well as the extract of the electoral roll along with the filled-up enumeration form, as the antecedent of their parents as voters was established in the SIR conducted 22 years ago.

The EC move has attracted criticism from the Opposition, which questioned the timing of the exercise.

Of the 7.89 crore existing voters in Bihar, 4.96 crore were part of the 2003 voters list prepared after a SIR then. The base for the latest SIR is the voters’ list of 2003, which has been posted on the EC website.

According to the EC, these 4.96 crore need not submit any documents, except for the extract of the roll, which has been made available to Booth Level Officer carrying out the house-to-house verification exercise, and submit the filled-up enumeration Form.

Others are mandated to provide proof of their date and place of birth and records of their parents.

“Further, as per instructions, anyone whose name is not in the 2003 Bihar Electoral Roll can still use the extract of 2003 Electoral Roll rather than providing any other documents for his/her mother or father. In such cases, no other document would be required for his/her mother or father. Only the relevant extract/details of the 2003 ER would be sufficient,” a statement said.

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said "The objective of SIR is to ensure that no eligible voter is left out, and at the same time, no ineligible voter is included in the electoral rolls. More than one lakh volunteers have also been deployed to assist the elderly, sick, persons with disabilities and marginalised groups in filling up their enumeration forms."

Referring to the criticism of its decision to hold SIR in Bihar ahead of polls later this year, the EC said revision of electoral roll is mandatory as per section 21(2)(a) of the Representation of People Act 1950 and Rule 25 of the Registration of Elector Rules 1960 before every election. The EC has been conducting annual revisions, intensive as well as summary, for 75 years now, it said.

“This exercise is required as the electoral roll is always a dynamic list which keeps changing due to deaths, shifting of people due to various reasons such as migration due to occupation/education/marriage, addition of new voters who have turned 18 etc. Further, Article 326 of the Constitution specifies the eligibility to become an elector. Only Indian citizens, above 18 years and ordinary residents in that constituency, are eligible to be registered as an elector,” it added.