New Delhi (14.08.2025): In a significant directive, the Supreme Court has ordered the Election Commission of India (ECI) to publish a district-wise list of approximately 6.5 million voters who have been omitted from the draft electoral roll following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) drive in Bihar. The court's ruling, which came after a petition challenging the revision exercise itself, mandates that the ECI must provide specific reasons for each deletion, such as death, migration, or double-registration.

This information is to be made public on the websites of the District Electoral Officers and the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar. The court specified that the documents should be searchable using EPIC numbers.

Furthermore, the Supreme Court has directed the ECI to include the Aadhaar card in its list of acceptable identity documents. The ECI, which had previously opposed the use of Aadhaar as proof of identification, must now give wide publicity through newspapers, electronic media, and social media that excluded individuals can furnish their Aadhaar cards when filing claims for inclusion in the final voters' list.

The bench observed that while it had previously directed the ECI to consider Aadhaar, its exclusion from the official list of 11 specified documents meant voters might not be aware of this option. The ECI has been given a deadline of next Tuesday to comply with these directives.