RJD MP Manoj Jha joins force in Supreme Court to challenge special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar

Petitions challenging the decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar are mounting with RJD MP Manoj Jha moving the Supreme Court.

Mr. Jha termed the SIR process in the State “ill-timed and hasty”.

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He agreed with Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who has separately challenged the SIR in the apex court, that the SIR process would disenfranchise crores of voters.

Mr. Jha said the decision was taken by the poll body without consultation with political parties and would be employed to “justify aggressive and opaque revisions of electoral rolls that disproportionately target Muslim, Dalit and poor migrant communities”.

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NGO, Association for Democratic Reforms, represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, activist Yogendra Yadav had also approached the apex court against SIR as a violation of the rights to adult suffrage, non-discrimination, dignity and equality of the ordinary and marginalised people of the State.

The petition filed by the NGO has sought the quashing of the June 24 communication from the EC declaring the SIR. The plea said the process violated the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and Rule 21A of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

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“The SIR order, if not set aside, can arbitrarily and without due process disenfranchise lakhs of voters from electing their representatives, thereby disrupting free and fair elections and democracy in the country, which are part of the basic structure of the Constitution,” the petition has submitted.

The petitioners have variously argued that the SIR shifted the onus of being on the voters’ list from the State to the citizens.