NOTING A SUBMISSION of the Election Commission of India (‘ECI’) that claims and objections to the Bihar draft electoral rolls will be considered even after the September 1 deadline and even after final publication of rolls, the Supreme court on Monday directed the Bihar Legal Services Authority (‘BLSA’) to instruct all district legal services authorities to depute or notify para-legal volunteers for assisting voters and political parties in online submission of claims, objections and corrections.
The bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, taking this on record, directed the BLSA to instruct all district legal services authorities to depute or notify para-legal volunteers for assisting voters and political parties in online submission of claims, objections and corrections.
Taking on record the ECI’s assurance that the process of claims and objections would remain open until the last date of nominations and all inclusions or exclusions would be integrated in the final roll, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, refrained from passing any order on the plea by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (‘RJD’) and others seeking a two-week extension till September 15, 2025, for filing claims, objections and corrections.
The top Court directed that each para-legal volunteer would submit a confidential report to the District and Sessions Judge, who is also the Chairman of the District Legal Services Authority (‘DLSA’), and the compiled inputs would be forwarded to the State Legal Services Authority.
During the hearing, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the poll panel, submitted that apart from RJD and CPI(M), no political party had assisted voters in filing objections. He pointed out that objections being filed by political parties largely sought deletion of names rather than inclusion.
