The pension orders and pre-1987 government documents might as well be ancient Sanskrit tablets for all their accessibility to the average Bihari. Birth certificates—in a state where home births remain common and registration systems spotty at best—exist primarily in theory. Passports? An unaffordable luxury for families struggling to put dal on the table. Matriculation certificates presume education in a region where children often leave school to work the fields. The permanent residence certificates mock the seasonal migrants who follow harvest cycles, while caste certificates and NRC documents entangle citizens in bureaucratic webs.

Each item on this preposterous list represents another trap door through which the marginalised might fall out of democratic participation. The EC’s requirements betray not merely incompetence but something far more troubling—a fundamental contempt for the poor. In rural Bihar, where homelessness hovers around 65.58 per cent, the EC expects citizens to produce land allotment certificates. Where illiteracy is rampant, they demand school certificates. Where poverty forces migration, they require permanent residence proof. The irony thickens when one realises most of these “acceptable” documents are issued based on the now-rejected Aadhaar card. So Aadhaar is valid enough to generate other documents but not valid itself? Such circular logic would make even Kafka blush. And the timeline—less than one month for potentially millions of voters to gather these obscure documents. Even if by some miracle citizens manage this bureaucratic treasure hunt, does the EC possess the manpower to verify them all? But perhaps verification isn’t the point.

This exercise will inevitably enrich corrupt officials as desperate citizens pay bribes to obtain certificates. The government’s bloated bureaucracy, already feasting on taxpayer money, will grow fatter while the poorest citizens—those most in need of representation—will be systematically excluded. If one government department doesn’t trust the certificates issued by another, why issue such certificates in the first place? Why waste billions in taxpayer money creating identification systems only to invalidate them?

The Supreme Court must recognise this charade for what it is—a calculated attempt to disenfranchise voters under the guise of electoral integrity. If the EC genuinely believes Aadhaar cards are flawed, then it’s the EC’s responsibility to fix the system, not punish citizens for government failures. Democracy isn’t a privilege for those with the right paperwork—it’s the bedrock of our nation. When bureaucrats with secure government positions can casually erase citizens’ voting rights with arbitrary rules, we’re no longer witnessing electoral management but democratic demolition.