The Bench said this after Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the ECI, submitted that the list of 11 documents to be considered for the revision exercise is not exhaustive.

The court directed that the matter be listed for hearing again on July 28, before the draft roll is published.

Intensive revision refers to the de novo preparation of the electoral roll from scratch through personal, house-to-house field verification by electoral registration officers.

Under the Bihar SIR, those who were on the 2003 electoral rolls need only submit an extract from it as proof, while others (enrolled after 2003) must provide one or more documents from a list of 11 (along with a pre-filled enumeration form for existing electors) to establish their date and/or place of birth – which, in turn, is used to determine citizenship.

“After hearing both sides, we are of the prima facie opinion that three questions are involved in this case: (a) The very powers of the election commission who under take the exercise, (b) the procedure and the manner in which the exercise is being undertaken, and (c) the timing, including the timings given for preparation of draft electoral rolls, asking objections and making the final electoral roll, etcetera, which is very short considering the fact that Bihar elections are due in November…”, the court said in its order.

“We are also of the considered view that the matter needs a hearing. Therefore, let it be fixed before the appropriate bench on July 28. Meanwhile, the counter affidavit will be filed by the Election Commission within one week from today, that is, on or before July 21, and a rejoinder, if any, be filed before July 28,” it added.

“… Mr Rakesh Dwivedi himself has pointed out that the list of documents which are to be considered by the Election Commission for verification of a voter includes 11 documents, but the list is not exhaustive… therefore, in our view, since the list is not exhaustive… it would be in the interest of justice that the election commission will also consider the following 3 documents such as the Aadhaar card, the EC voter ID card (EPIC card) which is issued by ECI, and ration card as this itself will satisfy most of the petitioners,” it said.

Dwivedi said the order mentioning additional documents may create hurdles as the process is already underway. He said it was not necessary to name the additional documents.

But Justice Dhulia said, “We are saying it’s up to you to consider it. If you have good reasons to discard it, discard it, give reasons.”

The petitioners said they are not pressing for an interim stay at this stage as the draft electoral rolls are to be published only on August 1.

Dwivedi said the petitioners had clearly asked for an interim stay and, therefore, the court should make it clear that ECI can go ahead with the process.

“We have said it. You go on,” remarked Justice Dhulia.

The petitions against SIR were mentioned before the Bench by senior advocates Kapil Sibal, A M Singhvi, Gopal Sankaranarayanan, and Shadan Farasat. Appearing for one of the petitioners, Sibal termed it an “impossible task.” “Eight crore is the electorate and four crore have to do the enumeration,” said Singhvi, who also appeared for another petitioner.

Sankaranarayanan said, “They won’t accept Aadhaar card, voter card.”