As poll-bound Bihar readies for publication of its final electoral roll, nearly 5% of the electors in Bihar are estimated to have submitted documents of proof other than the 11 documents prescribed by the Election Commission (ECI) in its June 24 order, as of last week, ET has learnt.

It is gathered that local authority documents, transfer certificates from schools and ration cards are among the documents submitted by lakhs of people in Bihar. However, none of these are acceptable as documents of proof under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR). ET gathers that such documents are not being accepted by the state electoral machinery and people are being advised to procure one of the relevant 11 documents instead.

Internal assessments show that no more than 3-4 lakh people from among the 65 lakh deleted from the state's draft electoral roll are likely to be included in the final electoral roll to be published on September 30, due to lack of specified documents.

Meanwhile, notices are learnt to have been issued to nearly three lakh people in the state over the veracity of their documentary proof. It is unclear if citizenship doubts are there or not in these cases. The June 24 SIR order states that if the Electoral Registration Officer "doubts the eligibility" of a proposed elector, due to non-submission of one of the 11 mandated documents or otherwise, he can start a "sou motu inquiry" and issue a notice to him asking why his name should not be deleted from the final roll. The ERO will rely on "field enquiry, documentation or otherwise" to decide on the same and pass a "speaking order" (an order detailing a clear cut justification) for the same. All such cases will also be referred to the "competent authority" under the Citizenship Act, 1955.

DOCUMENT DILEMMA
The biggest concern has been around the availability/ unavailability of the 11 stipulated documents. ET reported on August 4, how 10.4 lakh of the total 17.4 lakh enumeration forms submitted on time in Gopalganj district did not have any document of proof attached, as also stated on August 1 by the District Election Officer of Gopalganj.

Similar situations have been seen across districts and the ECI machinery has been pro-actively assisting and nudging such persons to get the stipulated document for inclusion in the rolls. The bulk of the electorate, however, has not had to furnish such documentation as they were already present in the 2003 electoral roll. Therefore, an extract of the 2003 electoral roll carrying their name has been accepted as the only valid document of proof required. Among the remaining, two of the 11 ECI prescribed documents, the family register and school marksheets, are learnt to have been attached as documents of proof in many cases with assistance by booth level officers in obtaining the same.

As per ECI estimates, shared in its counter affidavit in the ongoing case on Bihar SIR in the Supreme Court, over 2 crore people in Bihar are expected to be recorded on the family register or vanshavali. ECI's counter affidavit estimates nearly 3 crore certifications that count as documents of proof.

FINAL ROLLS DRAFT
Overall, 7.24 crore electors have been included in the draft roll of August 1. However, ECI has not yet shared data on the proportion that has successfully submitted the eligible documents of proof. ECI has maintained that this is an ongoing process. In a September 1 press release, the ECI has said it has received only 36,745 'claims' for inclusion in the roll and a significantly high 2.17 lakh 'objections' seeking exclusion of persons from the electoral roll.