New Delhi: The Bihar Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Sunday issued a firm rebuttal to recent media reports alleging large-scale duplication of voters in Bihar’s draft electoral rolls (SIR 2025), calling the claims “speculative, premature, and contrary to the legal framework governing electoral roll management.” The CEO emphasized that the SIR is a statutory exercise carried out under the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, and that draft rolls are intended for public scrutiny and objection.

Addressing the claim of 67,826 “dubious duplicates,” the CEO explained that the figure was derived from data mining and subjective matching of names, relatives, and ages, which without field verification cannot conclusively prove duplication. Rural constituencies in Bihar often have multiple individuals with identical names and similar demographic details, which the Supreme Court has deemed insufficient to establish duplication without on-ground inquiry.

All such entries flagged as Demographically Similar Entries (DSEs) undergo verification by Booth Level Officers and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) using ERONET 2.0 software, ensuring genuine electors are not disenfranchised.

Regarding allegations of 5,000 duplicates in Valmikinagar and specific cases such as “Anjali Kumari” of Triveniganj and “Ankit Kumar” of Laukaha, the CEO stated that these may arise from clerical errors, migration-related multiple applications, or household misreporting. Each case is being corrected during the ongoing claims and objections period, ending September 1, 2025.

The CEO also dismissed suggestions that electoral rolls were “locked” to prevent large-scale analysis, explaining that data protection safeguards under Rule 22 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, ensure integrity without concealing information.

Projections claiming “lakhs of duplicates” were described as speculative and legally untenable, as verified evidence, not statistical extrapolation, is required to substantiate duplication claims.

Reiterating the statutory framework, the Bihar CEO noted that Section 22 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 empowers EROs to delete duplicates if verified evidence is found, and any elector or booth-level agent can file objections under Rule 13 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, to challenge suspected duplicates.