'Put the names of 65 lakh voters missing from Bihar SIR on the website', Supreme Court directs Election Commission

According to the instructions, the compliance report will be taken from every booth level and district level officials and the Supreme Court will be informed. The next hearing will be on August 22. The list will be kept EPIC searchable.

The Supreme Court has asked the Election Commission to provide information about the people left out in the draft list of SIR in an easy way. There should be a separate website for each district, where the information should be uploaded. This should be widely publicised. The court gave these instructions while hearing the objections regarding the draft list of SIR.

The bench of Justice Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said that it is not right for people to depend on anyone to get information. They should not have to visit Booth Level Officer (BLO) or Booth Level Agent (BLA) of political parties. If someone is not in the list, then he or his family should get this information easily. This will enable them to claim for correction if necessary.

The Supreme Court has asked the Election Commission to take this step:-

• The names of the missed voters should be uploaded on the district level website
• The information will be booth-wise. It can be checked through EPIC number (voter ID card number)
• The reason for the voter's name not being in the draft list will also be written
• The website should be widely publicised in local media and official social media
• It should also be mentioned in the public notice that people can make their claim by attaching a copy of their Aadhaar card
• Every booth level officer should put up the list of missing names along with the reason for missing names in the Panchayat Bhawan and Block Office.
• The district wise list should also be uploaded on the website of the Chief Election Commissioner of the state
• The Election Commission should take compliance report from booth level and district level officers and inform the Supreme Court

The court has said that it will hold the next hearing on August 22 at 2 pm. On that day, along with looking at the report of the Election Commission, other suggestions of the petitioner side will also be heard. In the hearing held on Thursday, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi presented his side on behalf of the Election Commission. He said that the Commission cannot object to easily providing information to the voters. Its objection is only on the fact that an NGO claims its right to get the complete list.

PC:ABPNews