THE SUPREME COURT ON FRIDAY agreed to hear on September 1 a plea by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (‘RJD’) seeking an extension of the deadline for filing claims and objections under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (‘SIR’) exercise in Bihar.
Justice Surya Kant, heading the Bench, fixed the matter for hearing on Monday after Advocate Prashant Bhushan mentioned the application. The plea sought a one-week extension of the September 1 cut-off for filing claims and objections in the SIR of electoral rolls in the poll-bound state.
Bhushan informed the court that the RJD and several other parties had moved applications pressing for an extension, pointing out that more than 1.75 lakh claims were filed both before and after the top Court’s order dated August 22.
On August 22, the Supreme Court had ruled that persons excluded from the draft electoral roll could submit their applications for inclusion through online mode and that physical submission of forms was not mandatory. It had clarified that individuals could apply either on their own or with the assistance of booth-level agents (‘BLAs’) of political parties, and that physical filing was not necessary.
The Bench had further directed all 12 recognised political parties in Bihar to issue clear instructions to their cadres to help excluded electors file applications, along with any one of 11 supporting documents specified in Form 6, including Aadhaar. The Court had stressed that BLAs must make every endeavour to facilitate approximately 65 lakh persons left out of the draft rolls, except those who were dead or had voluntarily migrated, to file objections by the September 1 deadline.
The plea sought a one-week extension of the September 1 cut-off for filing claims and objections in the SIR of electoral rolls in the poll-bound state.
The top Court was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Election Commission of India’s (‘ECI’) decision to undertake SIR of the electoral rolls in Bihar.
The ECI, in an affidavit filed earlier, stated that names and details of around 65 lakh electors not included in the draft roll published on August 1 had been uploaded on the websites of all 38 District Electoral Officers. The Commission added that reasons for exclusion—death, change of ordinary residence, or duplication—were also recorded against each name.
That affidavit had been filed pursuant to the Supreme Court’s August 14 direction requiring the ECI to publish an enumerated, booth-wise list of persons excluded from the draft rolls during the SIR.
The petitions before the apex court were filed by RJD MP Manoj Jha, the Association for Democratic Reforms (‘ADR’), PUCL, activist Yogendra Yadav, Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra, and former Bihar MLA Mujahid Alam.
The petitioners have also challenged the ECI’s June 24 directive requiring large sections of Bihar’s electorate to submit proof of citizenship to remain on the rolls. They argue that the exclusion of widely used documents such as Aadhaar and ration cards disproportionately affects poor and marginalised voters, particularly in rural areas.