The Supreme Court on Thursday questioned the timing of the Election Commission's special intensive revision of the electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.

Hearing a bunch of petitions filed against the Election Commission of India’s special drive, the division bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Joymalya Bagchi suggested the poll panel consider the Aadhaar, voter’s identity and ration cards as valid documents for the electorate during the revision of rolls.

“After going through the documents, ECI has pointed out that the list of documents for verification of voters includes 11 and is not exhaustive. Thus in our opinion it would be in the interest of justice if Aadhaar, EPIC [electoral photo identity card] and ration card should be included,” Justice Dhulia said in the order.

Justice Bagchi had asked the EC that given the magnitude of the exercise if it would be possible to link it to the Bihar Assembly election, likely to be held in November this year.

During Thursday’s hearing, Justice Dhulia had three questions for the EC ‘s counsel, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi.

The issue before the apex court goes to the root of democracy and about the right to vote. The petitions were not just about the powers of the EC but the process adopted and the timing of the exercise, which has already been questioned by the Opposition parties.

Appearing on behalf of the petitioners, including Trinamool Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra, the RJD’s Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha, activist Yogendra Yadav and the Association for Democratic Reforms among others, senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal argued that the special intensive revision was an exercise in deciding citizenship which was outside the remit of the central poll panel.

“This is absolutely an exercise to carry out citizenship screening,” said Singhvi.

Sibal argued that the Election Commission could not decide who was a citizen of India and who wasn’t.

“ECI has no power in this. Who are they to say we are citizens or not? This entire exercise is shocking. They say if you don’t fill a form you cannot vote. How can this be allowed? The burden [of proof] is on them and not me,” Sibal told the bench.

The bench asked the petitioners counsel whether it was not the EC’s mandate to see who qualified as voters and who did not.

“Citizenship is totally under different procedures. Someone has to come and show that they are seeking it under a different process and produce documents. Then comes Aadhaar which was taken as a valid one, upheld by nine judges and the entire country is going mad after Aadhaar and then a constitutional body says Aadhaar will not be taken,” Singhvi argued.

The list of 11 documents that the EC has made mandatory for citizenship proof excludes Aadhaar, PAN card and driving licence.

To Justice Dhulia’s query whether a large section of the population would be disenfranchised, Singhvi replied, “This is an exercise in citizenship. Disenfranchisement of one voter impacts democracy and the basic structure. So we are saying all 10 elections till now were based on wrong electoral data.”

The bench asked the EC’s counsel that if a caste certificate issued on the basis of an Aadhaar card was acceptable, why couldn’t Aadhaar be included. Caste certificate is included in the list of 11 documents prepared by the EC.

“It is one of the basic documents which is considered by so many, is not considered by you,” said Justice Dhulia.

Justice Bagchi too underlined that if Aadhaar did not come in the EC’s policy towards the electoral revision exercise, why was the body opposing it so stridently?

“We feel since Aadhaar has been taken as a solid proof for inclusion in electoral rolls as per section 23, it should be included. Your enumeration list is all related to identity,” Justice Bagchi said.

The next hearing of the case has been fixed for July 28.