Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 28: Contrary to the stand taken by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on the validity of documents required for the verification of identity of the voters for inclusion in the electoral rolls in Bihar under the on-going “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR) exercise, at least five of the 11 key documents approved by it did not indicate the date of birth of the applicant, a pre-requisite to qualify as a voter.
Aadhaar, Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) the voter identity cards issued by the ECI itself, or PAN cards have not been included in the list of 11 indicative documents that the applicants can produce. The ECI for the second time on Monday virtually rejected the Supreme Court’s suggestion to include at least Aadhaar and EPIC cards in the list of valid documents for identity verification.
The ECI held the stand that Aadhaar and EPIC cards could easily be faked despite the SC telling the commission that these two excluded documents are usually the ones submitted by people to procure any of the 11 documents required for inclusion during the SIR exercise in Bihar. The court also told the ECI that if Aadhaar and EPIC card could be fraudulently duplicated, so could be any of the other 11 documents figuring in the valid list.
Among the 11 documents sought by the ECI, the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe certificate, Forest Rights Certificate and Permanent Resident Certificate (or Domicile Certificates) do not display the date of birth or place of birth of an applicant. Two other documents accepted — the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Family Register — do not exist in Bihar. The Domicile Certificate, which can be issued by a Revenue officer or Tehsildar, is in much demand in Bihar since the SIR was announced, and is often issued on the production of an Aadhaar card.
According to the June 24 order of the Election Commission for the Bihar SIR, 11 documents approved by the ECI included pension payment order issued to regular employee/pensioner of the government, any certificate issued by local authorities, banks, post offices and such prior to July 1, 1987; birth certificate; passport; matriculation/educational certificate; Permanent Residence Certificate issued by the competent State authority; Forest Right Certificate; SC/ST certificate; National Register of Citizens (wherever it exists), Family Register or any land/house allotment certificate issued by the government for the inclusion in the voter rolls.
A booth-level officer (BLO) of Chapra district of Bihar said out of the 500 forms distributed by him in the past one week, 185 were filled and returned by the applicants. “Just 10% of the filled forms were supported by the required documents — all submitted school leaving certificates. Those who did not have any of the 11 documents said they have applied for a domicile certificate and hoped to get it in the next 10-12 days. Applicants said they provided a copy of Aadhaar to get the domicile certificate,” the BLO said.
A local Congress leader pointed out that among the documents sought only a few mention the date of birth. Usually Aadhaar is furnished as the proof of date of birth which the ECI is not accepting this time. He said 25% of those expected to submit the documents were estimated to be at risk of not being able to furnish them, potentially facing deletion in the voter rolls.
To be included in the electoral rolls, nearly 2.93 crore people are expected to furnish the documents. During the 2024 General Elections, Bihar had 7.9 crore voters, out of which 4.96 crore voters who were there in the 2003 revision list, need not submit the details, the ECI has said.
A specimen of a caste certificate application on Bihar Government’s website required applicants to mention the Aadhaar registration number. Mirroring the criteria mentioned in the Citizenship Act, 1955, the ongoing SIR in the poll-bound State also empowers the electoral registration officers (ERO) to report cases of suspected foreign nationals to a “competent authority” based on the said documents.
According to the 2023 Manual of Electoral Rolls, published by the ECI in March of the same year, “In case of non-availability of documents, an oath or affirmation from one of the parents, or Sarpanch and even a visible examination by the BLO can work as proof of age.” The ERO can conduct local enquiries to establish proof of residence in the absence of documentary evidence. The ECI sources said, “The final decision has to be taken by the ERO based on field visits.”
The SC/ST and OBC certificates, which are issued by officers of the rank of Tehsildars and above in the district administration, reveal only the holder’s name, where they “ordinarily reside,” their community’s name and their parents’ names. None of them display information on the holder’s place of birth or date of birth. This information is required in the application forms but not displayed in the certificates.
Further, FRA titles distributed under the 2006 law reveal information on the holder’s name/s, their spouse, dependants’ and parents’ names, the village and address, if they are ST or not, the area of land covered under it, and demarcations of the same. These titles are signed by a forest officer, a tribal welfare officer and the District Collector. In Bihar, as of May 2025, there are 191 individuals holding FRA titles in the entire State.
After organizing a day-long public hearing on July 21 in Patna on the ongoing SIR exercise, a citizen’s panel comprising several groups had called the SIR an “assault on the rights of the people of their franchise and suggested that the ongoing exercise must be stopped.” In their suggestion the panel also called SIR as “impractical and filled with irregularities.”
“The public hearing held on July 21 in Patna also had participation of 250 people from 19 different districts of the state and a panel of over a dozen respected citizens to know the ground realities over ongoing SIR of electoral rolls in the state. The report has been released of that public hearing which advocated to stop the process (SIR) which has been an “attack on constitutional rights of people.”
It said it was impractical to upload millions of documents and verify it in such a short period of time and above all, such process was happening when flood hits Bihar and people in rural areas were busy in agricultural activities. Even the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) were not properly trained on ground level. Irregularities were also found in filling up the forms as to follow the process in such a short time.
The BLOs were not being able to visit every household. False signatures are being done on the forms and talks of bribe given too have come from several places, said the panel. Under “inconvenience and harassment” section, the report highlighted that “several people said that they had to forgo with their daily wage as they had to give time in getting their (enumeration) form filled and even several people said that they had to pay ₹ 100 for getting their form filled.