Bihar SIR Under Fire as Dead Voters Allegedly Enrolled
The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar’s voter list has come under serious scrutiny after petitions filed in the Supreme Court alleged large-scale irregularities, including the inclusion of deceased individuals in the electoral rolls. The process, aimed at purifying the rolls ahead of upcoming elections, is now being questioned for its integrity.
Deceased and Uninformed Citizens Listed
Petitioners argue that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have uploaded voter enumeration forms without informing or seeking consent from the individuals concerned. In some instances, forms were submitted in the names of people who have been dead for years. Citizens also reported receiving confirmation messages for form submissions they never made, indicating that the process might have been misused to fabricate compliance.
One of the submissions noted that enumeration forms had been mass-uploaded without the knowledge or participation of voters. “Forms of even dead individuals have been reported,” the petition read. This has raised serious concerns about transparency and possible disenfranchisement of eligible voters.
Concerns Over Voter Disenfranchisement
Organizations monitoring electoral integrity have warned that such practices may impact millions. They argue that this flawed revision exercise could lead to legitimate voters being wrongfully removed from the rolls, especially those who are unable to contest these deletions due to migration or lack of resources.
Election Commission Responds
The Election Commission of India has maintained that the SIR was carried out to clean the electoral rolls by identifying and removing duplicate, deceased, and migrated entries. According to official data, enumeration forms have been submitted for over 7.23 crore out of 7.89 crore registered voters in Bihar. The Commission stated that approximately 22 lakh deceased, 7 lakh duplicate, and 35 lakh untraceable or migrated entries were identified for deletion, pending the claims and objections period.
The final revised rolls are scheduled to be published on August 1. Officials insist that the due process of verifying claims and objections will ensure that no eligible voter is excluded unfairly.
Supreme Court to Hear the Case
The Supreme Court will hear the petitions challenging the SIR on July 28. The court is expected to examine whether the enumeration process followed the principles of fairness and voter consent or if it violated constitutional rights through unauthorized data handling.
