Enumerator can’t decide citizenship: Petitioners cite EC’s 2003 guidelines, Pg8.

Key Highlights:

• Petitioners challenged the Election Commission's (EC) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar in the Supreme Court.
• Petitioners cited EC's 2003 guidelines, stating enumerators were not to determine citizenship during the intensive revision of electoral rolls.
• The EC's June 24 order for the SIR deemed the 2003 rolls as probative evidence of citizenship, requiring those added after to submit proof of eligibility.
• Petitioners claim the 2003 intensive revision (IR) was fundamentally different from the SIR, and should not be used as a precedent.
• Preliminary analysis shows 68.66 lakh names were deleted and 21.53 lakh added after SIR, reducing total electors from 7.89 crore to 7.42 crore.

Detailed Insights:

• The Association for Democratic Reforms, represented by lawyer Prashant Bhushan, submitted the EC's 2003 guidelines which the EC had not made public.
• The 2003 guidelines tasked enumerators (now Booth Level Officers) with house-to-house visits to enter eligible electors on a 'record of enumeration'.
• Unlike the SIR, the 2003 IR did not require all electors to submit documents, but enumerators could ask for proof in case of doubt about age, residence, or family shifting.
• The EC stated the SIR was needed due to the inclusion of foreign nationals on the rolls, but the 2003 guidelines clarified it was not an exercise to check citizenship.
• Petitioners argue that after the SIR, 10% of Bihar's adult population is not registered to vote, as the number of electors is 7.42 crore while the estimated adult population is 8.22 crore in 2025.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Electoral Roll: A list of persons eligible to vote in an election.
• Enumerator (Booth Level Officer): Official responsible for updating voter lists at the ground level.
• Citizenship: Legal status of a person recognized as a member of a state, with associated rights and duties.