The Supreme Court is hearing petitions challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of state elections. During the hearing, the court made an oral observation that the process appears 'voter friendly'. Justice Bagchi noted that expanding the number of acceptable identity documents from seven to eleven is more inclusive for the electorate. This comes a day after the court agreed with the Election Commission that Aadhaar is not conclusive proof of citizenship. Petitioners have argued that the SIR exercise is exclusionary and arbitrary, claiming around 65 lakh names have been deleted from the draft voter list. The Supreme Court stated it is examining the technical and constitutional validity of the process, not political arguments, to ensure no citizen is unfairly excluded from voting.
00:00There's a hearing going on in the top court right now and what we hear is that the Supreme Court has said 11 documents required to be submitted by an elector for Bihar's special intensive revision, the SR exercise of the electoral rule as opposed to 7 documents in the summary revision that was previously conducted.
00:18This shows that the exercise is voter-friendly and that is what is happening right now because the court has resumed the hearing on a batch of pleas challenging the 24th June decision of the EC to conduct the SR in poll-bound Bihar that despite petitioners' arguments, non-acceptance of Aadhaar is exclusionary.
00:40It appeared the large number of documents was actually inclusionary is what the court has said.
00:46Just want to quickly quote from what the top court has said.
00:49The number of documents in summary revision conducted earlier in the state was 7.
00:53In SIR, it is 11 from the documents that they can show for validity to be checked and that shows it is voter-friendly.
01:03We understand your arguments that non-acceptance of Aadhaar could be exclusionary but a high number of documents is actually inclusionary is what the bench has said.
01:13So that's what's happening in the top court.
01:16This SIR exercise for the election-bound state of Bihar has led to political showdown on the streets alleging this will be used to target a certain group, hamper the fair electoral process.
01:28Should not happen. But this comes at a time when Rahul Gandhi himself says that there are full-on vote-chori that has happened in the past and fake voters have happened.
01:38Let's try and understand this more.
01:40My colleague Anisha Mathur joins me for the latest on that.
01:44Anisha, tell me more about what does this mean about 7 and 11 documents that the court says in fact this SIR exercise is more inclusionary.
01:52It is more voter-friendly.
01:54Pooja, let's look at it in the context of what is happening in the court right now.
01:57The petitioners have said that the SIR exercise will illegally exclude voters.
02:04The Supreme Court has asked this question.
02:06How exactly are you saying it is exclusionary when the number of documents has in fact been increased?
02:12Because the last intensive revision which happened in Jharkhand, that had 7 documents.
02:18And now there are 11 documents that have been included.
02:21In response to this question and comment from the court, the senior advocates appearing on behalf of the petitioners are pointing out which documents are actually available to the people in Bihar.
02:33I beg your pardon.
02:34In fact, let's go through the arguments that are there.
02:38What they are arguing is that the 11 documents that are on the list of the SIR are in fact documents that may or may not be available with the people of Bihar.
02:48For example, the passport which is available with about 3% of the population.
02:53The permanent residence certificate which is something that is not there in Bihar because Bihar does not have a permanent residence certificate authority.
03:04They are also looking at the other documentation that is there.
03:08What the petitioners are arguing is that even though the number of documents themselves has increased, these documents are not actually available with the people who are likely to be excluded from the SIR lists.
03:22Now, this argument of course is still going on in the Supreme Court as we speak.
03:26Post 2pm, this argument is going to continue.
03:29At the moment, this hearing is on break for lunch.
03:33The court has also questioned about pension payment orders and whether how many people will actually be included in these.
03:40At the moment, effectively, Pooja, the exercise in the Supreme Court is on the issue of whether expanding the list of documents will actually bring in the people into the voter list or is it something that is an exclusionary exercise.
03:55In fact, the court has raised this issue that even if people do not have a birth certificate right now, it is open for people to get fresh birth certificates issued.
04:06The question that is being asked by the petitioners is, is there enough time for people to do that exercise before the voter lists are frozen for the upcoming Bihar elections?
04:14How do you think the court is looking at this? Because on one side, there is a political showdown that there are fake voters, there is vote chori happening and then the Congress party and specifically the senior lawyers representing as petitioners are saying SIR exercise is exclusionary.
04:30It is going to hamper the process and this is weeks to go for Bihar elections.
04:34So, I am trying to understand how the court is taking cognizance of it.
04:37Is it going to be time bound in the next few days?
04:40Will there be clarity on it while the SIR exercise presently is on?
04:43Well, see Pooja, the Supreme Court has made its stance very clear when it comes to the Bihar SIR exercise.
04:49They will be hearing this matter between today and tomorrow.
04:53The arguments will have to be concluded.
04:55The court had made that very clear that we are giving you two days.
04:58Now, because the matter could not be taken up early to yesterday, they have extended it by one more day, which means that the arguments are going to continue till tomorrow as well.
05:06Yesterday, as well as today, the court had said that if there are any concerns, if there is a mass exclusion, we will pass directions with regard to the voter list for the upcoming Bihar elections.
05:20That has been made very, very clear by the Supreme Court that if you can show us that there are mass deletions, if you can show us that there are concerns, then we can always pass the order.
05:29We can always say that these SIR lists will not be applicable to the upcoming Bihar elections.
05:35When it comes to the vote-chory argument that the opposition is raising outside of the court, please remember that is a completely different argument.
05:44That is a political argument being raised outside of court.
05:46What the Congress is saying about Bangalore or other areas is not before the court right now.
05:53The court is looking only and only at the Bihar SIR exercise and the existence of the SIR as an exercise in the first place.
06:03So, if you look at what is happening in the court, the question is, can the EC exclude voters from the list?
06:08But how is the EC holding the SIR exercise?
06:11Is it something that needs to be done before the Bihar elections or is it something that should be extended so that people have the time to get their documents together?
06:21All these are the questions before the court.
06:22So, Anisha, we will see how this goes in the hours to come, especially as the hearing is still on in the top court.
06:28But clearly, SIR has become a huge issue from whether the court, on the streets, on social media, Congress managing to make it a huge debate.
06:37BJP hitting back saying it's the Congress is much involved with the fake voter issue.
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