The right to vote and the freedom to exercise it are essential features of a successful electoral democracy. These are also prerequisites to ensure that the outcome of elections reflects the popular mandate. It is the responsibility of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure the sanctity of the electoral process, which also means that no Indian citizen who is eligible to vote is excluded from the electoral roll, or a non-citizen subverts the process by acquiring voting rights.
The right to vote and the freedom to exercise it are essential features of a successful electoral democracy. These are also prerequisites to ensure that the outcome of elections reflects the popular mandate. It is the responsibility of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure the sanctity of the electoral process, which also means that no Indian citizen who is eligible to vote is excluded from the electoral roll, or a non-citizen subverts the process by acquiring voting rights. It is for this purpose that ECI periodically updates the electoral roll ahead of elections. However, in Bihar, where assembly elections are due soon, its Special Intensive Revision process to make a fool-proof electoral roll has run into rough weather over the conditions set for inclusion or retention of a citizen in the master document. The Opposition and some civil society groups have moved the Supreme Court, arguing that ECI’s initiative will result in disenfranchisement of a large number of voters. The fears are real, as an exhaustive report in HT has revealed, and they call for immediate redress.
On Thursday, when the two-judge Bench began hearing a clutch of petitions, at least three important observations by the court stood out. One, the judges did not stall ECI’s electoral revision process, though it said ECI’s actions are subject to judicial review. This is understandable because the Representation of the People Act authorises ECI, a constitutional body, to conduct elections. The Court is cautious about institutional redlines, though the legal questions regarding the extent of state ECI’s actions will be settled later. Two, the Court has asked ECI to consider adding Aadhaar, Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC), and ration card to its list of 11 acceptable documents. The Court has also said ECI must explain the reasons if it rejects the suggestions. ECI’s decision to exclude Aadhaar, for instance, has been baffling since the government has previously said that the unique identification number and the use of biometrics make it a fool-proof document of identity. ECI will need to explain why it disagrees with the government’s stance. Three, the Court pointed out that ECI has no mandate to verify citizenship – that is a task left to the Union home ministry. Aadhaar, PAN and ration card are not admissible as evidence of citizenship but can surely be treated as documents to establish identity.
Numerous reports substantiated with data have revealed that persistence with ECI’s current list of documents could lead to massive exclusion of eligible voters, especially women, underprivileged, and migrant workers, from the electoral roll. This has much to do with State capacities, which reflect in low levels of birth registration (only 26.2% births were registered in Bihar in 2007, the last year that would make people eligible to vote in 2025), the absence of educational documents (only 23% of adults had completed school, as per the 2011 Census), and employment identity cards and pension documents issued by the government (just about 4.8% of Bihar’s population were in government service, according to 2023 caste survey). In comparison, Bihar has generated 114 million Aadhaar cards for its projected 130 million population (as of July 2025); 83 million Biharis also have their names included on ration cards.
In this backdrop, and considering the short time window available, ECI should heed the SC’s suggestion, expand its list of identification documents, and ensure that no citizen is deprived of her constitutional right to vote.
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