SC Orders EC to Disclose Bihar Voter Deletions

The Supreme Court has ordered the Election Commission to produce details of the 3.66 lakh names removed from Bihar’s final electoral roll after the Special Intensive Revision and directed the EC to publish deleted‑person data in district electoral offices within 48 hours while asking petitioners to provide at least 100 examples of alleged wrongful deletions. The bench warned that if it finds illegality in the ECI’s methodology the entire Bihar SIR could be set aside with pan‑India effect. The ECI and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar have defended the SIR as conducted under law, saying most additions are new voters, that Aadhaar was accepted only as identity proof (not proof of citizenship), and that no exclusion appeals have been filed so far. The EC announced Bihar’s two‑phase assembly polls on Nov. 6 and Nov. 11 with counting on Nov. 14 and has imposed the model code of conduct. The final electoral roll lists 7.42 crore electors (about 3.92 crore male and 3.5 crore female), including roughly 14 lakh first‑time voters and about 4 lakh senior citizens, and the state will use about 90,712 polling stations with a cap of 1,200 voters per station. The commission also outlined voter‑friendly and security measures — including webcasting, mobile deposit counters, stricter verification, a ban on phones in booths, and colored candidate photos/serial numbers on EVMs.