नवीनतम
Bihar SIR: SC agrees to examine pleas to extend Sept 1 deadline
NEW DELHI [Maha Media]: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine on September 1, 2025, pleas seeking the extension of the deadline to file claims and objections in connection with the Bihar special intensive revision (SIR) regarding the draft voter list.
The matter was mentioned by advocate Prashant Bhushan for urgent listing before a bench led by Justice Surya Kant. The bench agreed to list the matter for hearing on Monday, September 1. Bhushan contended before the bench that the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and few others have filed applications seeking the extension of the September 1 deadline to file claims and objections with respect to the draft voters list.
The bench asked the counsel to move before the Election Commission of India (ECI) with the request. However, the counsel informed the bench that they have approached the poll body and it is not extending the time.
The bench, also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, said it will hear the applications of the political parties on Monday after advocate Bhushan and senior advocate Shoeb Alam, appearing for the RJD, said that several of them have filed applications for extension of deadlines.
Advocate Nizam Pasha, representing AIMIM, contended that the number of objections has surged significantly. Pasha said before the August 22 order, around 80,000 claims were filed and since then, an additional 95,000 have come in. He stressed that the deadline needs to be extended.
The RJD urged the apex court to direct the ECI to extend the timeline for filing claims of deleted electors by two weeks and accept the claims of deleted voters till September 15, 2025. It also sought a direction to the ECI to publicise the August 22 order passed by the apex court and inform the electors that claims can be filed along with Aadhar card.
The RJD said that despite the order of the top court, on the ground, many BLO's (booth level officer) refused to accept claims along with Aadhar card and insisted the elector to furnish one of the 11 enumerated documents.
"The BLAs of RJD have been facilitating the filing of claims by electors who have been erroneously deleted from the draft list, and that is also reflected in the SIR Daily Bulletin that shows that the number of claims received directly from electors have increased significantly and multiplied many times since the Order of this court on 14-08-2025. It is pertinent to note that in many instances, the BLOs did not cooperate with the BLAs and refused to give acknowledgement to claims collected by RJD from electors", said the application.
The application said this court on August 22 permitted the electors to file claims along with 11 enumerated documents or Aadhar, and also impleaded the political parties and directed the BLAs of political parties to make an endeavour to ensure that the claims of the deleted electors are facilitated.
"After the order of this court, the claims along with the Aadhar card have been collected by the BLAs. Despite the acknowledgment of claims by BLO’s, claims were not lodged and were not reflected on the Daily EC status report against the party", it contended.
The RJD included a table, in its application, highlighting few instances where the claims in Form 6 of genuine electors who have been wrongly deleted by the ECI collected by the BLA along with the acknowledgment on the declaration form by the BLO was detailed.
"Although these claims have been acknowledged by the BLAs, however, they have not been reflected by the Election Commission in the daily status report to set up a wrong narrative that the BLAs of political parties are not cooperating and filing claims", it said.
"Since the last order of this court on August 22, which permitted the filing of claims along with Aadhar Card, the number of claims have doubled from 84,305 on 22-08-2025 to 1,78,948 electors on 27-08-2025 in only 5 days. However, across districts, there are many instances where the officers have refused to accept the claims only with the Aadhar Card and have in utter disregard to the Orders passed by this Hon'ble Court have insisted upon one of the 11 documents mentioned in the ECI Order dated 24- 06-2025", said the plea.
The plea said the flood in Bihar is getting worse, with villages in 12 districts across 54 blocks and 348 panchayats have been impacted by floods. "Few instances, where BLAs, volunteers of the political party, panchayat heads, district secretary general, ward member etc., have written to the RJD President complaining that because of the flood situation the task of verification of deleted voter list is very difficult", it said.
The plea said as per the ECs own daily SIR update, the number of claims have increased, and over one lakh claims filed in the last one week and 33,349 claims have been filed in the last two days. "The period of filing claims expires on 01-09-2025. Unless extended, genuine electors whose names have been erroneously deleted by the ECI will not be able to submit their claims and consequently will be barred from exercising their right to vote in the coming elections", said the plea.
On August 22, the apex court had said that the ECI should allow online submission of claims of deleted voters with an Aadhaar card or any other acceptable documents in the Bihar SIR.
The top court had also criticised the political parties in Bihar over their inaction in assisting the people, who were left out of the draft electoral roll during the SIR in filing claims and objections. The bench asked why the political parties have not assisted the over 65 lakh deleted voters. "Political parties are not doing their jobs... What are your BLAs (booth-level agents) doing? Political parties must help voters", observed the bench.
The bench orally observed that though there are about 1.6 lakh BLAs of political parties, only two objections have come from them. It was argued before the apex court that poll body officers were not acknowledging the objections given by the BLAs.
The bench directed the poll body to allow excluded voters to submit claims through online mode besides making physical submissions in the SIR exercise of the electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar.
The bench stressed that the entire SIR exercise should be voter-friendly and asked the political parties to come forward. The bench said the ECI should allow online submission of claims of deleted voters with Aadhaar card or any other acceptable documents for Bihar SIR. The ECI informed the apex court that 85,000 new voters have come forward in Bihar SIR, only 2 objections filed by booth-level agents of political parties.
