Starting with Bihar, fresh electoral rolls: Proof of birth date for those not in 2003 list

Apart from that, for those born between July 1, 1987 and December 2, 2004, a date of birth and/or place proof of the mother or father will be required and for those born after December 2, 2004, date of birth proof and/or place of both parents will be needed. These categories, EC sources said, have been devised in line with the Citizenship Act, 1955.

In its order issued Tuesday, the EC said it was empowered by the Representation of the People Act, 1950 to direct a special intensive revision of the electoral rolls “including preparation of electoral rolls afresh”. As per the order, the EC had exercised this power 13 times before – from 1952-56 to 2004.

“Therefore, the Commission has now decided to begin the Special Intensive Revision in the entire country for the discharge of its constitutional mandate to protect the integrity of the electoral rolls; However, since the General Elections to the Legislative Assembly in the State of Bihar is expected in later part of this year, hence the Commission has decided to conduct Special Intensive Revision in the State of Bihar,” it said.

The EC order said the last intensive revision in Bihar was in 2003, with the qualifying date of January 1, 2003. For the upcoming exercise, the Electoral Registration Officers in Bihar would take that as “probative evidence of eligibility, including presumption of citizenship unless they receive any other input otherwise. Any person whose name is not recorded in the 2003 Electoral Roll for the purpose of registration in the electoral roll is required to submit from amongst a wide range of eligible government documents as prescribed for establishing their eligibility to be an elector.”

As per the instructions issued by the EC to the Bihar Chief Electoral Officer, the process will start from Wednesday, ending with the publication of the draft roll on August 1, followed by a month for filing claims and objections till September 1. The final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on September 30.

According to the EC, all electors will be required to submit a pre-filled enumeration form with required documents either to the respective Booth Level Officers or upload the same onto the EC’s app.

The EC issued the instructions to Bihar authorities Tuesday, with the objective that all eligible citizens are enrolled in the electoral roll, no ineligible person is included and there is complete transparency in the deletion and addition of electors, the EC said in a statement.

“The last intensive revision for Bihar was conducted by the Commission in the year 2003. Various reasons such as rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths and inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants have necessitated the conduct of an intensive revision so as to ensure integrity and preparation of error-free electoral rolls. The BLOs shall be conducting house-to-house survey for verification during the process of this intensive revision,” the EC said.

It said the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) do verify that the electors being enrolled are eligible as per Section 23 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950. But, now the EC was introducing a new measure – uploading the documents submitted by the electors, for instance as address proof, on the ECI’s app ECINET.

“Now, to ensure complete transparency, it would be necessary that the documents on the basis of which such satisfaction of ERO is arrived at, are also uploaded in ECINET as the current level of technology enables so. However, these documents shall be accessible to authorised election officials only keeping in view the privacy issues. In case of any claims and objections raised by any political party or an elector, the AERO would inquire into the same before EROs satisfaction is arrived at. Under Section 24 of the Act, an appeal against the order of ERO can also be made to the District Magistrate and the Chief Electoral Officer,” the EC said.

This move comes at a time when the commission is facing questions from the Opposition, including recently from Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, regarding the purity of the electoral roll in some states.

“While all efforts shall be made by the Election Commission of India that the revision process is carried out in a smooth manner causing minimum inconvenience to the electors, ECI shall be seeking active involvement of all political parties in the process by appointing their Booth Level Agents (BLAs) in all polling booths. The active participation of BLAs would ensure that discrepancies, if any, are resolved at the preparation stage itself, thereby reducing the instances of filing claims, objections and appeals,” the EC said.

As per the instructions issued by the EC, the EROs will print out pre-filled enumeration forms for all existing electors as on the date of the order. The BLOs will then take these forms and distribute them to the electors through home visits. The forms will also be available on the ECI website and ECINET app. The BLOs will help the electors fill the forms and collect the completed forms, along with required documents, it said. The electors can also upload the filled forms and documents online. “Draft Electoral Roll to be prepared of all electors whose EF (enumeration form) have been received,” it said.

As of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Bihar had 7.72 crore registered electors. The EC instructions state that the BLO will have to make at least three visits to collect the filled forms and that any deletion should not be done without conducting the statutory inquiry. EC sources, however, said that the electors whose forms are not received in the prescribed time frame will be deleted from the draft roll. They will have the opportunity to file an appeal.

Meanwhile, the EC issued another set of instructions to states Tuesday, changing the protocol for dealing with the EVMs and VVPATs in which the votes cast during the pre-polling mock poll is somehow not deleted or the slips not removed. So far, such machines were set aside and not counted if the margin of victory of the winning candidate was more than the number of votes. This, EC sources, led to a mismatch between the total votes polled and votes counted.

Now, the EC has instructed CEOs to keep such machines aside and count them on a separate table. The mock poll votes as recorded in the mock poll certificate would be subtracted to arrive at the candidate-wise count for these machines as well. The presiding officer and polling officer of the polling station concerned will face disciplinary action if the mock poll is not erased from the control unit of the EVM or VVPAT slips of the mock poll are not removed, the EC said.