New Delhi, Aug. 11 -- The Election Commission of India (ECI) has told the Supreme Court that it is under no legal obligation to prepare or publish a separate list of nearly 6.5 million names not included in Bihar's draft electoral rolls, or to disclose reasons for their non-inclusion. In its latest affidavit on the contentious special intensive revision (SIR) in Bihar ahead of assembly polls later this year, the Commission emphasised that the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, only require publication of the draft roll and provision for claims and objections, and not any parallel deletion list. ECI argued that non-inclusion in a draft roll is not the same as deletion from the electoral roll. The draft is a work-in-progress document, it said, and names may not appear for a variety of reasons, such as unreturned enumeration forms, or errors detected during house-to-house verification, but these names remain open to restoration through the claims process before final publication. "The draft roll simply shows that the duly filled enumeration form of existing electors has been received during the enumeration phase," stated the affidavit, adding individuals missing from the draft can file Form 6 along with the prescribed declaration to claim inclusion during the claims and objections period from August 1 to September 1, 2025. Contesting allegations by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) that the omissions amounted to mass deletions without transparency, the poll body also accused the NGO of making "patently false and erroneous assertions" and attempting to mislead the court. The ECI's affidavit came in reply to allegations by ADR that 6.5 million names had been deleted from Bihar's draft electoral rolls without transparency and without disclosure of whether the deletions related to deceased persons, migrants or other categories. The petitioners alleged that political parties had not been given full access to the draft lists, and that in many cases booth level officers (BLOs) included or excluded names without proper verification of the 11 documents prescribed by ECI. On August 6, a bench led by Justice Surya Kant directed ECI to file a "comprehensive reply" to the ADR's plea. The matter will be heard next on August 12. In its Saturday night filing, the Commission said ADR's demand for a public list of those not in the draft rolls, along with reasons for each omission, was legally unfounded. Rules 10 and 11 of the RER, it pointed out, only require that draft rolls be made available for public inspection in the relevant areas and supplied to recognised political parties. "As neither the law nor guidelines provide for preparation or sharing of any such list of previous electors whose enumeration form is not received. no such list can be sought by the petitioner as a matter of right," the affidavit said. ECI stressed that any individual omitted from the draft roll has a clear statutory route to inclusion, and that the reasons for non-inclusion, whether death, permanent migration or being untraceable, do not alter the remedy available. Providing reasons, therefore, "serves no practical purpose" at the draft stage, it argued....