Noida (Uttar Pradesh) [India], September 16 : Following the Supreme Court's recent remarks on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), Congress leader Supriya Shrinate on Tuesday said that "electoral fraud" is still ongoing in Bihar and the Election Commission has added 4 lakh names of new voters.
Speaking to ANI, the Congress leader alleged that a "complete conspiracy" has been hatched in Bihar to rig the elections in the backdrop of SIR and an attempt is being made to commit major irregularities during the elections in Bihar.
Shrinate said, "Electoral fraud in Bihar is still ongoing. The Election Commission has added 4 lakh names of new voters. The noteworthy thing is that only 27% of the new voters are aged between 18 and 20 years; the rest are all above that... Some people in it are even 100 years old. Apart from this, 58% are such people who have objected and said that their names should be removed... A complete conspiracy has been hatched in Bihar to rig the elections in the name of SIR... This shows that somewhere, an attempt is being made to commit major irregularities during the elections in Bihar."
On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to modify its September 8 order directing the Election Commission of India (ECI), which permitted the use of the Aadhaar card as a 12th document for the proof of identity for the inclusion of a voter to the revised voters' list being prepared as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymlaya Bagchi said the direction passed by it last week was only interim in nature, and the issue of the document's validity as proof is still open to be decided in the matter related to the SIR.
Other documents like ration cards and driving licenses are also as susceptible to being forged as the Aadhaar card, and Aadhaar cannot be singled out and excluded on that ground, the apex court said.
"Driving licenses can be forged, ration cards can be forged. Several documents can be forged. Aadhaar is to be utilised to the extent law permits," said the bench.
The top court was hearing an application of advocate Ashwini Upadhyay seeking modification of the September 8 order, contending that anybody can get an Aadhaar card by merely staying in India for 182 days, and it was neither a proof of citizenship nor residence.
He said there were lakhs of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis in Bihar, and allowing the use of the Aadhaar card would be "disastrous".
ECI will consider disaster or absence of disaster, responded the bench. It, however, issued a notice to the ECI on Upadhyay's application.
The apex court also said it was presuming that the poll panel, being a constitutional authority, was following the law during the SIR exercise and warned that the exercise would be set aside in case of any illegality.
"What difference will it (the final publication of the list) make to us? If we are satisfied there is some illegality, we can...," said Justice Kant.
It fixed October 7 for the hearing of final arguments on the validity of Bihar SIR.
"Our judgment in Bihar SIR will be applicable for Pan-India SIR," the bench said as it clarified that it can't stop the ECI from conducting a similar exercise for revision of the electoral roll across the country.