Publish names of 65 lakh excluded voters: SC to EC , Pg1

Key Highlights:

• The Supreme Court directed the Election Commission (EC) to publish a list of approximately 65 lakh excluded voters from the draft electoral roll in Bihar.
• The list must include individual reasons for exclusion, such as death, migration, untraceability, or duplicate registrations.
• The court emphasized the importance of transparency and the voter's right to know the reason for deletion from the electoral roll.
• Aadhaar can be submitted as a document for electors to file objections against exclusion.

Detailed Insights:

• The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar led to the exclusion of 65 lakh voters out of 7.89 crore registered electors, despite their names being present in the voters' list from January 2025.
• The court ordered the EC to publish the information on the websites of District Electoral Officers (DEOs) and display physical lists at block development/panchayat offices.
• The EC must widely publicize the list's availability through vernacular and English newspapers, radio, TV, and authorized social media accounts.
• The court highlighted that voters should not be dependent on booth-level officers (BLOs) or booth-level agents (BLAs) to know their deletion status.
• The EC is required to submit a compliance report by August 22 with proof of compliance from BLOs/DEOs.
• The list should be searchable by the EPIC number of the voter concerned.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Electoral Roll: A list of persons registered to vote in an election.
• Booth-Level Officer (BLO): A grassroot level election official responsible for voter registration and awareness.
• Aadhaar: A 12-digit individual identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India.