India, Aug. 6 -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to file a reply by August 9 in response to allegations that over 65 lakh names were deleted from Bihar's draft electoral rolls without transparency during the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan and N Kotiswar Singh issued the directive while hearing an application filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which claimed that ECI had failed to disclose who the deleted voters were and whether they were deceased or had migrated.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for NGO ADR, submitted that the draft list released on August 1 lacked crucial information. "They have not specified w...