PUCL slams 'exclusionary' voter roll revision, warns of mass disenfranchisement in Bihar despite Supreme Court relief

By A Representative

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has sounded an alarm over what it calls an “unprecedented exclusionary exercise” in Bihar’s voter list revision, even as it welcomed the Supreme Court’s interim order of 14 August 2025 directing transparency in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process. The organisation said that the Election Commission of India (ECI), unless compelled to act decisively, risks stripping millions of citizens—especially the poor, migrants, and marginalised—of their constitutional right to vote.

The apex court, ruling in ADR and Others v Union of India, ordered the ECI to publish booth-wise lists of deleted names, make them searchable by EPIC numbers, state reasons for exclusion, and display the lists at Panchayat Bhavans and Block Development Offices. It also mandated extensive publicity of the lists and clarified that Aadhaar cards could be used by aggrieved voters to claim inclusion.

PUCL President Kavita Srivastava welcomed the order but minced no words about the dangers still lurking. “This SIR was imposed suddenly and arbitrarily. What we are witnessing is not a revision of the voter roll, but a purge,” she said. “Our field surveys show voters who are very much present in their villages are being asked to run from pillar to post, with no BLO contacting them, no clarity about their applications, and no information on why their names are missing. These citizens are at serious risk of being silenced at the ballot box.”

General Secretary V. Suresh, who is also the petitioner for PUCL in the case, said the issue goes beyond technical errors. “The right to vote is not a bureaucratic favour—it is the core of Indian democracy. Yet people with valid Electors Photo Identity Cards or Aadhaar are being dropped. The Supreme Court has recognised this and mandated transparency. The question is whether the Election Commission will implement it in good faith, or continue to let a process of mass disenfranchisement unfold,” he told reporters.

The figures are staggering: 65 lakh voters already excluded, and 36 lakh more marked under categories like “permanently shifted” or “not found.” PUCL says many of these are migrant workers who oscillate between Bihar and other states for survival. “Entire families risk losing their franchise because they are labelled as ‘not found’,” said PUCL Bihar General Secretary Sarfaraz-Uddin, himself a co-petitioner in the case. “The ECI must allow any family member to file forms on behalf of all adults, or else migration will become a penalty for being poor.”

Bihar State President Anand Kishore warned that the opacity around new inclusions makes matters worse. “Unless Aadhaar is fully accepted for fresh additions, this will be remembered not as a revision but as a systematic exclusion drive. Democracy in Bihar cannot survive if lakhs of legitimate voters are scrubbed off the rolls in silence,” he said.

PUCL has demanded that the Supreme Court’s safeguards—such as publishing names of excluded voters, giving reasons for rejection, and granting adequate time for redressal—apply not only to the 65 lakh already struck off but also to those likely to be denied inclusion in the final list. The group insists that strict compliance, even if it requires extending deadlines, is the only way to prevent what it calls an “assault on the franchise.”

“Citizens cannot be reduced to numbers in a database that deletes them overnight,” Srivastava said. “This is about the survival of the Constitution’s promise. If lakhs of voters vanish without notice, India’s democracy itself stands diminished.”

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