SIR in Bihar: Accept Aadhaar along with voter ID, SC tells EC | India News

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday advised the Election Commission to proceed to authenticate voters primarily based on Aadhaar card and Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) and mentioned that Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state must be geared toward en masse inclusion moderately than en masse exclusion.A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, nonetheless, turned down the plea for placing a keep on SIR train. Instead, the court docket mentioned it might maintain day by day hearings to allow an expeditious ruling on the problem.To EC’s argument that Aadhaar was not a conclusive proof of identification, the court docket requested which single doc gave conclusive proof and advised the fee to simply accept Aadhaar along with EPIC for verifying a voter’s credentials.The court docket in its July 10 order had mentioned, “It would be in the interests of justice if the EC also considers the following three documents such as 1) Aadhaar card; 2) EPIC issued by EC, and 3) Ration card, as these documents would satisfy most of the voters.”Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, arguing on behalf of petitioners, advised a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi that the EC remains to be not contemplating these three paperwork to authenticate the voters and will result in mass exclusion of names of individuals from voters listing.For EC, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi and Maninder Singh advised the SC that the fee had issue in accepting ration playing cards as proof of voters due to large-scale irregularities discovered earlier. “The revision forms given to people are pre-filled with their EPIC numbers. Since EPIC is not a conclusive proof, the voters must show some other document to authenticate names on the voter list.”“The revision forms given to people are pre-filled with their EPIC numbers. Since EPIC is not a conclusive proof, the voters must show some other document to authenticate names on the voter list.”The bench mentioned, “None of these documents can be said to be conclusive proof of identity. Which is that document giving conclusive proof? Why would you not accept Aadhaar as a conclusive document alongside EPIC? Any document, including Aadhaar can be forged. So, proceed with (SIR while accepting) Aadhaar and EPIC”When Dwivedi raised the apprehension that Aadhaar too may very well be cast, the bench mentioned the EC can prosecute people who try to authenticate their names as voters by offering cast paperwork. “An exercise of this nature cannot be for en masse exclusion. It should aim for en masse inclusion,” the bench mentioned. Sankaranarayanan mentioned until the time the problem about paperwork referring to SIR is determined by the SC on adjudication of the petitions, the EC mustn’t proceed with the train. Justice Kant-led bench mentioned, “The earlier order is clear – there cannot be any interim order in this case.” The senior counsel persevered for upkeep of establishment or clarification that SIR could be topic to consequence of petitions in SC. The bench mentioned if it agreed with petitioners, then it had energy to quash SIR. “We need to hear the petitions as expeditiously as possible. Counsel for petitioners must give by Tuesday a schedule detailing the time to be taken by each counsel. We will hear it on a day-to-day basis,” it mentioned.