'Aadhaar no proof of citizenship': EC to apex court on Bihar SIR

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday commenced hearing on a batch of pleas challenging the Election Commission's decision to undertake a special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the poll-bound Bihar.

"Aadhaar card not a proof of citizenship", Election Commission of India told the Supreme Court, as reported by Live Law.

ECI was responding to the Court's question why Aadhaar was excluded from the Bihar Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

A partial working day (PWD) bench comprising Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi was told by senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the poll panel, that he has preliminary objections to the petitions.

Besides Dwivedi, senior advocates K K Venugopal and Maninder Singh are representing the EC.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for one of the petitioners, said the revision of electoral rolls can be permitted under the Representation of People Act.

The entire SIR will cover around 7.9 crore citizens, he said, adding that even the voter ID and Aadhaar cards are not being considered.

Over 10 petitions have been filed in the SC, including one by NGO 'Association for Democratic Reforms', the lead petitioner.

RJD MP Manoj Jha and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress' K C Venugopal, NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule, CPI leader D Raja, Samajwadi Party's Harinder Singh Malik, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Arvind Sawant, JMM's Sarfraz Ahmed and Dipankar Bhattacharya of CPI (ML) have also moved the top court, seeking direction for quashing the EC order.