New Delhi: While hearing the challenge to the Election Commission of India’s (ECI’s) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Bihar, the Supreme Court on Wednesday (August 13) asked the petitioners whether the ECI does not have the residual power to conduct such an exercise in a manner it deemed fit.The Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi did not appear to be moved by the evidence of omissions and chose to describe the process as “in fact, voter-friendly and not voter-exclusionary” given that the poll body is accepting 11 documents as proof of identity as opposed to seven during past revision exercises.“They are expanding the number of documents of identity … it gives you more options,” Justice Joymalya Bagchi said, reported Indian Express.To petitioners challenging the EC’s power to hold such an intensive revision, the other judge on that bench, Justice Surya Kant, drew attention to Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, which says that the commission “may … direct a special revision of the electoral roll for any constituency or part of a constituency in such manner as it may think fit”.When lawyer Gopal Sankaranarayanan said that the current exercise wasn’t taking place just in one constituency but an entire state, Justice Bagchi asked why the SIR could not be seen as a special revision occurring in each of Bihar’s seats simultaneously, reported LiveLaw.Sankaranarayanan also said that adult Indian citizens have the right to be enrolled as voters under Article 326, but Justice Bagchi said the EC would in turn say it has the power under Article 324 to conduct elections and prepare voter rolls.“It is a battle between a constitutional right and a constitutional power,” he said. The bench will likely resume hearing the matter tomorrow.Advocate Prashant Bhushan questioned why the ECI removed the searchable version of the draft roll from its website, adding that the ECI did it on the very next day of Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi’s press conference, alleging voter list manipulations.Bhushan demanded that the ECI should publish the list of the 65 lakh voters who have been omitted from the list along with the reasons for the omission.“They say they have exact reasons for deletion – why should they not be on the website? This shows mala fide intent,” said Bhushan.Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the 11 documents which have been specified by the ECI as acceptable for the SIR have very little coverage among the population in Bihar. He questioned the exclusion of Aadhaar, EPIC, ration card, water and gas connection bills etc. from the list, said the LiveLaw report.The hearing will continue on Thursday (August 14).Read The Wire’s coverage of the Bihar SIR here.