Even the dead are filling up Bihar SIR forms, Supreme Court told

NEW DELHI: The special intensive revision of Bihar's electoral rolls was "conducted in a manner that constitutes a grave fraud on voters", petitioners opposing the Election Commission's exercise told Supreme Court on Saturday, alleging irregularities such as BLOs being found signing enumeration forms themselves, those dead being shown to have filled up forms, and those who hadn't filled up forms getting a message that their forms had been completed.Countering EC's submission that there was no irregularity in the process, Association for Democratic Reforms and Bihar's main opposition party, RJD, said in their responses that EC's figures were of no consequence since most of the forms were collected without documents and a large number of voters continued to be at the risk of disenfranchisement.BLOs found forging voters' signs: RJD Enumeration forms are being mass uploaded by BLOs without the knowledge or consent of voters, in order to achieve the unrealistic target set by EC.

Many voters have reported that their forms have been submitted online, despite never having met with any BLO or signed any documents. Forms of even dead individuals have been reported to have been submitted," Association for Democratic Reforms said in its response filed through advocate Neha Rathi.It said, "This points to the flawed manner in which the current SIR is being conducted, where the integrity of electoral rolls is compromised, potentially affecting millions of voters and undermining the democratic process.

The situation raises serious questions about transparency, accountability and the potential for electoral fraud, as voters express confusion and concern over how their details were uploaded without their involvement.

"RJD MP Manoj Jha, in his response filed by advocate Fauzia Shakil, said media reports pointed out countless instances where electors have complained that BLOs did not visit their house or neighbourhood, forms were not given in duplicate, no acknowledgement was given on submission of forms and photos were not taken.

He said BLOs were found forging voters' signatures on forms and uploading them."The present exercise is unprecedented inasmuch as for the first time a person is being asked to furnish a documentary proof of his citizenship to the satisfaction of Election Commission to be enrolled as a voter and exercise his constitutional right to vote. As is evident from a bare perusal of Form 6 - the application form for a new voter - and documents for proof of date of birth and documents for proof of residence were required to be furnished along with only a declaration that a person is a citizen of India," Jha said.Pitting former EC commissioner against the poll panel, the petitioner referred to the opinion of Ashok Lavasa, who also questioned EC's decision on SIR. They also said there was no valid reason for EC to reject SC's suggestion to accept Aadhaar, voter ID and ration cards for inclusion in electoral rolls and that the exercise being done just months before the Bihar assembly polls was creating confusion on the ground and could disenfranchise lakhs of voters."In light of the media reports from Bihar, showing how BLOs are signing blank enumeration forms in absence of voters, the numbers as suggested by EC are circumspect and even otherwise are of no consequence since most of these forms have been collected without documents and a large number of the electorate in Bihar continues to be at the risk of disenfranchisement. It is submitted that inclusion of name in draft roll has no meaning till documents as required are submitted, and thus, the risk of disenfranchisement looms large over a huge population who has already voted in multiple elections since 2003," the response said.