THE Supreme Court onMonday again asked the Election Commission of India to consider including Aadhaar card and electoral photo identity card as admissible documents to prove the identity of voters during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being undertaken in Bihar. A division bench of Justice SuryaKant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi also refused to stop the ElectionCommission frompublishing thedraft electoralrolls for Bihar on August 1 as per the schedule notified for the Special Intensive Revision. The bench did not hold a detailed hearing, as Justice Kant had to attend ameeting with the ChiefJusticeofIndiain the afternoon and asked the petitioners and the ECI to decide on a tentative time they would take to argue in the case.

 

The bench said it will inform tomorrowabout the next date of the hearing. Duringthehearingtoday,senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for one of the petitioners, requested that the topcourtstop the notification of the draft list. He said it will inconvenience approximately 4.5 crore voters, and once the draft list is published, those excluded will have to takesteps to fileobjectionsand seek inclusion.

 

The bench then said that it’s a draft list, and the court can ultimately strike down the entire process if any illegality is found. Asking thepollpaneltoinclude Aadhaar card and voter ID card for SIR, the bench said, “There is presumption of correctness withofficialdocuments,youproceed with these two documents. You will include these two documents (Aadhaar and electoral photo identity card)...Wherever you find forgery, that is on caseto-case basis. Any document on the earth can be forged...”