A day before the deadline for filing of nominations for the first phase of the Bihar Assembly election ends, Election Commission of India in an affidavit
filed Thursday, levelled a big allegation on anti-SIR petitioners in Supreme Court who are NGOs, including Prashant Bhushan's Association For Democratic Reforms and opposition parties. The poll body has accused them of a "communal approach" which needs to be "deprecated". ECI has slammed the claims of petitioners that there was a disproportionate exclusion of Muslims. "Electoral rolls database does not capture any information on religion of any elector", ECI has said ECI said in an affidavit: "Petitioners have sought to allege that there is disproportionate exclusion of Muslims (25% amongst 65 lakh excluded voters from the Draft Electoral Roll, and 34% amongst 3.66 lakh electors finally deleted). This is based on some software for name recognition, whose authenticity, accuracy or appropriateness cannot be commented upon." "This communal approach is to be deprecated. Electoral Rolls database does not capture any information on religion of any elector. Moreover, it is incorrect because the 65 lakh individuals not included in the Draft Electoral Roll had been segregatedly published on the website of CEO/DEO as per this Court's Order, and most of those not included did not file objections or correction applications. These 65 lakh individuals were not included as they did not submit Enumeration Forms being dead, having permanently shifted or having entries in more than one constituency". SC on the last hearing day (Oct 9) said one of the challenges that has arisen during these proceedings is how to ensure the right to appeal to those approximately 3.66 lakh persons, who are stated to have been excluded from the final voter list. Though the Election Commission of India has taken a categorical stand that each of the excluded person has been served with the orders containing reasons for such exclusion, this fact has been disputed on behalf of the petitioners, SC said "Since the time to file an appeal is running short", SC said it asked Bihar State Legal Services Authority, to send a communication, preferably today itself, to all the Secretaries of the District Legal Services Authority, to provide: (i) the services of the para-legal volunteers; and (ii) free legal aid counsels to enable the excluded persons to file their statutory appeals.
