The Supreme Court Monday refused to stop the Election Commission (EC) from publishing the draft electoral roll for Bihar, drawn up following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), on August 1.

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymala Bagchi said the petitioners’ concerns were taken care of by the suggestion in the July 10 order of the Court to also consider Aadhaar and Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC), and that the Court can always step in and strike it down if there is any illegality.

In its July 10 order, the apex court had asked the EC to consider Aadhaar, voter ID and ration cards for the purpose of updating the rolls, but left it to the discretion of the poll body whether to accept or reject them.

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“In the last order, there is a very good suggestion, to consider Aadhaar and EPIC,” Justice Surya Kant told Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, who appeared for the EC. “As of now, the two documents (Aadhaar and EPIC) have a presumption of correctness, because these are authenticated documents. So you proceed with these two documents…”.

Cases of forged documents can be dealt with on a case-to-case basis, the Court said. “Wherever you find forgery, that’s on a case-to-case basis. Any document on Earth can be forged,” Justice Kant said, adding that there “should not be en masse exclusion”, rather there should be “en masse inclusion”.

At the very outset, Justice Kant said he had an administrative meeting scheduled and might not be able to hold court for the rest of the day. He asked the parties to inform how much time they would need to argue, and said the Court would fix a date for hearing.

Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for petitioner Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), said the EC “had violated the Court’s order” as far as considering Aadhaar and EPIC cards went.

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Justice Kant referred to the counter affidavit filed by the EC and remarked that the poll panel has not rejected the two documents.

Sankaranarayanan replied that “factually, on the ground, they are not accepting”.

Justice Kant said: “It seems their stand is that the list of documents which initially excluded Aadhaar is not exhaustive, and following this Court’s direction or advice, these documents will also be accepted.”

Dwivedi, appearing for the EC, said: “What we have said is that as far as ration cards are considered, we have difficulty in accepting… large-scale (forgery).” He added: “As far as the EPIC card is concerned, the pre-filled enumeration form includes the EPIC number… EPIC is being considered, but since the electoral roll is being revised, EPIC cannot be conclusive… because this is a Special Intensive Revision.”

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Justice Bagchi said the EC can take it into account if someone submits the enumeration form with Aadhaar and, if necessary, issue a notice thereafter.

“Maybe one in a thousand cases, you will find this EPIC card is also forged, that can be (dealt with) on a case-to-case basis,” said Justice Kant. “For that matter, any document on this Earth can be forged. Then Aadhaar can also be… So, as of now, the two documents (Aadhaar and EPIC) have a presumption of correctness, because these are authenticated documents. So you proceed with these two documents….”

Dwivedi said the EC was allowing Aadhaar, adding: “What we are saying is that under the Aadhaar Act itself, Section 9 says that, by itself, it is not proof of citizenship.”

The Court asked the parties to submit the timeline Tuesday after which it will fix the next date of hearing.