The Supreme Court on Thursday directed that free legal aid and assistance be provided to all individuals whose names were excluded from Bihar's final voter list following the Election Commission of India's (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The court said that each of the 3.7 lakh affected individuals must be given access to legal counsel and para-legal volunteers to help them file appeals against their exclusion.
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A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the ECI's June 24 directive ordering the SIR in Bihar. The petitioners argued that the revision process enabled arbitrary deletions from the voter list without adequate safeguards, risking disenfranchisement of lakhs of citizens and undermining free and fair elections.
The ECI, however, defended the exercise, saying it was legally empowered to undertake such a revision to ensure that only eligible citizens were included before the upcoming Bihar Assembly poll
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