The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to furnish by Saturday the details of around 65 lakh voters who were left out of the draft electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.

The Association for Democratic Reforms, which had challenged the June 24 order of the EC directing the special intensive revision (SIR) of rolls in Bihar, had filed a fresh application seeking a direction to the poll panel to publish the names of around 65 lakh deleted voters.

“We will ensure that at least every voter who is likely to be affected is given the information... we will ensure that the requisite information, whatever documents are required from him (voter), those are duly considered,” a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N. Kotiswar Singh told advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the ADR.

“Not only political parties, there must be information with the local administration also,” Justice Kant, heading the bench, observed.

The court will hear the matter on August 12 after the EC files its response.

Bhushan told the court that the EC had not provided any list of the 65 lakh names that were omitted from the draft rolls.

The reasons cited by the EC for non-inclusion of voters in the draft rolls included death (22 lakh) and permanent migration (35 lakh), Bhushan submitted.

“They should disclose who are these 65 lakh, who have migrated and who are dead,” Bhushan argued.

He told the court that the ADR had filed a detailed interim application explaining the various instances of errors and irregularities in the SIR process.

The EC counsel told the court that he would place on record materials to show that the necessary details had been shared with representatives of the political parties.

“It (the EC) fails to provide any explanation as to why these names were not included in the draft electoral rolls...,” the ADR application stated.

The NGO submitted that the list of names dropped from the rolls provided by the EC to some political parties served no purpose, and could not be used to cross-check any details in the absence of a valid reason for such deletion.

“The EC’s concealment of reason for deletion against each name in the list of 65 lakh electors seems to be an attempt to obviate the general public, including the petitioners, from ascertaining whether or not electors whose names figure in the said list are indeed dead or permanently migrated,” the ADR said.

“It is to be noted that as per the Election Commission, those whose names do not figure in the draft rolls do not enjoy the right to routine legal remedies (notice, personal hearing and appeals) available under Section 21A of the Registration of Voters Rules. They do not have the option of participating in the process of claims and objections and thus are at the biggest risk of disenfranchisement,” it added.

The NGO claimed that the EC was in possession of such a list “as is evident from a sample list for one constituency (as provided to some political parties on July 20 that the petitioner obtained”.

This list provided the reason for not filing the enumeration form under the column titled “Uncollectable Reason”, the ADR submitted.

“However, in the list of deleted names as shared by the ECI after publication of the draft roll, the said column itself has been removed,” ADR said.

Terming the EC a constitutional authority deemed to act in accordance with law, the top court had said on July 29 that it would step in immediately if there is “mass exclusion” in the SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar.