Why are Bihar’s electoral rolls being revised? | Explained

The story so far:

TThe Indian Election Commission (EC) launched a special intensive revision of the election rolls in Bihar before the general elections for the Legislative Assembly.

What is the election roll?

Article 324 of the Constitution foresees that the preparation, direction and control of the preparation of election rolls for the execution of the elections of the Parliament and State Legislative Assembly will be given to EC. ARTICLE 326 foresees that every citizen, who is not less than 18, has the right to be registered as voters (voters).

Election rolls are prepared by EC in accordance with the representative provisions of the 1950 People’s Law (RP law). Chapter 16 of the RP Law disks dispensing to be registered in an election roller without a citizen. Section 19 requires that the person is not less than 18 years of age and normally resides in the election zone.

Chapter 20 of the RP Law gives the meaning of the term ‘normally resident’. He states that a person will not be considered as ‘normally residents’ in an election zone, because he has a housing in such a selection zone. However, at the same time, a person who does not exist temporarily ‘from the residence is there will continue to be’ normally residence ‘.

Why was a sir initiated?

Part 21 of the RP Law is related to the preparation and revision of election rolls. It gives EC the authority to perform a special revision of the election roller at any time due to the recording of causes.

Election Commission, rapid urbanization and migration due to the last 20 years to the election rolls of large -scale additions and deletion processes, he said. This increased the probability of recurrent entries in the roll. The Commission is obliged to ensure that only citizens are registered in election rolls. Accordingly, EC decided to make a sir for the whole country starting from Bihar.

The last one was held in 2003 for Bihar. Due to the fact that the Bihar Assembly elections were held in November, EC has presented the instructions for a Sir of the Bihar Election Roll, which is currently on July 1, 2025.

During the last Sir, the counting officials were sent to verify the house with a copy of the details of the existing voters. However, the current, sir, each voter will have to present a number of numbering form to its own stand level officials (BLOS). As of January 2003, for voters registered in the election roller (on the basis of the last sir), another document should be sent other than the quote of the 2003 election roll. However, after January 2003, registered voters must submit additional documents for themselves and their parents to determine the date of birth and location when necessary. The program is given in Table 1 for the existing sir.

What are the pros and cons?

There have been arguments against the Sir and Sir made by various stakeholders. The basic issues of the controversy are summarized below.

The process and time required for all exercise: Supporting Sir in today’s form, fans argue in 2003 within 31 days without technological support. This time, the same amount of time will be taken for exercise with technology. Moreover, there are more than one Lakh Blos, approximately 4 Lakh volunteers and 1.5 Lakh cabin level agent (Blas) assigned by political parties to ensure that this exercise is implemented smoothly.

The arguments against the current form against Sir state that it is a humungous task that includes the presentation of forms by eight Crore voters who have never been done before. In addition, Crore voters close to three will be asked to submit documents that determine their birth dates and places for themselves and their parents. Migrant workers and students may not be able to present their numbering forms in the last date. Despite the presence of workers at many field levels, there may be potential errors in inclusion and exclusion.

Excluding Aadhaar as a document for registration: Sir’s advocate, in its current form, says neither the date of birth nor the evidence of citizenship. The Aadhaar card itself carries a waiver that cannot be used as proof of citizenship. Therefore, in line with the constitutional and legal requirements, the AADHAAR was excluded as a valid document. The list of valid documents includes caste certificates, family records and land allocation certificates.

Today’s advocates against Sir argue that Aadhaar has become an Omnibus ID card for all parts of society, especially for those who do not have any other document. Form 6 According to the registration of voters rules for the inclusion of new voters, 1960 (RER) requires the necessity of AADHAAR to be provided unless the person has. According to Form 6, it is stated as the date of birth and residence. These rules are made by the Central Government according to the RP Law. Only in secret instructions EC has added a form of declaration to be sent with Form 6 and with additional documents other than Aadhaar in order to create the date and place of birth.

Exclusion of immigrants from the election roller: For Sir, the arguments in the existing form state that the RP Law should only be included in the election roller of a election zone of the ‘normally residing’ citizens. The immigrants who have long been distant from education or employment will be included in the election roller of the election zone of the existing residences in accordance with the RP law and the provisions of the RER.

However, counter -arguments show that the RP Law does not normally reside ‘. Many immigrant workers go to other places in the state or outside the state, but they return to birth/ growing places at regular intervals. The families and properties of such immigrants can continue where they want to protect their right to vote. Until January 2023, the EC recently stated that all stakeholders had the intention of providing technical feasibility and accepted migratory workers a remote voting facility.

What could be the road to the forward?

In order to provide an analogy, the inclusion of a name that is not suitable for the election roller is like a guilty person who is attached to Scotland, and it is similar to a person suffering from an appropriate voter. Both expectations would be an error over democracy. Therefore, selection rolls should be thoroughly checked and verified.

First, the recommended timeline recommended for the completion of such a mammoth exercise is stretched. EC should ensure that adequate measures are applied for the completion of the exercise without error. Blas should be actively joined to prevent negligence or additional errors.

Secondly, excluding Aadhaar from the valid list of documents may cause problems for many people, especially for those who are insufficient. After taking into account the facts of the location in the first stage of the numbering, the EC should adapt the process sufficiently during the objection phase to ensure that no appropriate citizen is not excluded because they cannot produce any documents from the list of valid documents.

Finally, immigrant workers should not be removed from rolls as they may result in important deletions. Such immigrants have exercised voting rights instead of birth/growing according to their choices and should continue to do so. According to the amendment of the RP Law in 2010, it should be noted that they have the right to register and vote for voters with their addresses per passport, even in the long term. The issue of voter identities for the same person in different election regions should be handled with the insemination of the AADHAAR in which EC started to consult in March 2025.

Rangarajan. R is the author of an old IAS officer and ‘simplified committee software’. Currently, civil servants are training at the IAS Academy. The views expressed are personal.

Published – 07 July 2025 08:30 IST