Bihar SIR exercise was 'accurate', claims EC; Supreme Court says poll body expected to look into errors in final electoral roll

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday said it expected the Election Commission would look into typographical errors and other mistakes in the final Bihar electoral roll prepared after the Special Intensive Revision exercise as a responsible authority and come out with remedial measures.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said the EC knew its responsibility and after deletion and addition, they would publish the final roll.

The court said it would hear on November 4 the legal issues pertaining to the Bihar SIR exercise.

The EC said that since its publication of the final electoral roll on September 30, not a single appeal has been filed by any voter against name deletion.

It claimed the Bihar SIR exercise was "accurate" and that the petitioner political parties and NGOs are merely content with making "false allegations" to discredit the exercise.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, for the NGO 'Association of Democratic Reforms, said details of a voter claiming his name was not added in the final list, which was alleged by the EC as fake on the previous hearing in the matter, were true.

He said that EC should disclose how many voters were deleted and for what revision to ensure transparency in the exercise.

The bench noted that the electoral roll will be frozen on October 17 in some constituencies, which are going into poll in first phase and on October 20 for those going into poll in second phase.

The court had earlier asked the Bihar State Legal Service Authority to issue directions to its district-level bodies to assist 3.66 lakh voters excluded from the final electoral rolls in filing appeals with the Election Commission.

On September 30, the EC, while publishing the final electoral list of the poll-bound Bihar, said the total number of electors has come down by nearly 47 lakh to 7.42 crore in the final electoral roll from 7.89 crore before the Special Intensive Revision of the voter list carried out.

The final figure has, however, increased by 17.87 lakh from 7.24 crore electors named in the draft list issued on August 1, which had removed 65 lakh voters from the original list on various accounts, including deaths, migration and duplication of voters.

While 21.53 lakh new electors have been added to the draft list, 3.66 lakh names have been removed, resulting in a net increase of 17.87 lakh.

The Assembly elections in Bihar are scheduled to be held in 121 seats of the 243-member Assembly on November 6, while the remaining 122 constituencies will go to polls on November 11. The counting of votes will be held on November 14.