Supreme Court directs paralegal volunteers to assist voters in filing objections amid trust issues over SIR exercise
New Delhi:With the Election Commission submitting that claims, objections and corrections in the draft voters’ list for Bihar can be filed beyond the September 1 deadline, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to pass any specific direction on pleas seeking more time for the purpose and ordered that the process will continue until last date of nomination in each Assembly constituency.
The apex court said political parties/petitioners may submit their affidavits in response to the poll panel’s note. The top court’s order came on pleas by the RJD and AIMIM seeking extension of the September 1 deadline.
Dubbing the confusion over the Bihar SIR as “largely a trust issue”, the top court directed the state legal service authority to deploy paralegal volunteers to assist individual voters and political parties in filing claims and objections to the draft roll, which was published on August 1.
It said the paralegal volunteers would submit a confidential report with the district judges concerned and the collated data of the state will be considered on September 8, when the matter is due for hearing.
According to the June 24 schedule of the poll panel for the Bihar SIR, the deadline for filing claims and objections to the draft roll came to a close on Monday and the final electoral roll will be published on September 30.
In its order, a two-judge bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said: “As regards extension of time, a note submitted by the EC says that filing of claims/objections or corrections is not barred after September 1. It is stated that the claims/objections/corrections can be submitted even after the deadline, that is after September 1, and the same will be considered after the roll has been finalised.”
“The process will continue until the last date of nominations and all inclusions/exclusions are integrated in the final roll. In light of this stand, let the claims/objections/corrections be continued to be filed,” the top court said in its order.
The RJD had, in an application, sought two more weeks beyond the September 1 deadline.
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the EC, said the extension of timelines for filing claims and objections beyond September 1 would disrupt the schedule for finalisation of the electoral roll. Senior counsel said that according to the records, approximately 99.5 per cent of 7.24 crore electors featured in the draft electoral roll for Bihar had submitted their eligibility documents for the SIR exercise.
“The exercise of verification of these documents is currently ongoing, and is scheduled to be completed by September 25, 2025, in accordance with the schedule provided in the SIR order dated June 24, 2025,” he said.
The assertion made by the RJD of filing 36 claims through its booth level agents was “incorrect and misleading” and the correct position, records showed, was only 10, the poll panel said.
Senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Shoeb Alam urged the bench that for the 7.24 crore voters whose names featured in the draft electoral roll, an order should direct Aadhaar cards to be considered as an eligibility document for them. The top court said it has already passed an order for acceptance of Aadhaar for 65 lakh deleted voters, but it cannot by an order enhance the status of Aadhaar provided under the statute.
The bench said the EC has to follow the procedure prescribed in the June 24 order related to Bihar SIR and expressed concern at the high rate of objections filed for exclusion of names from the draft roll. “Political parties need to activate themselves”, it said.
Rebutting claims by the RJD and CPI (M-L) on the number of claims filed, the EC said: “It is submitted that apart from the CPI-ML and RJD, none of the other recognised political parties have, either through their office-bearers or validly appointed BLAs, assisted any elector out of the approximately 65 lakh whose names are not included in the draft electoral roll to submit Form 6 with declaration.”
The poll panel said an overwhelming majority of forms received from both political parties and individuals were for exclusion of names featuring in the draft electoral roll. “Of the total 128 forms received on the draft rolls from political parties, 103 are for deletion (Form 7) and only 25 are for inclusion (Form 6). This number represents a miniscule fraction of the total number of electors of Bihar,” it said.
It said: “Although individual electors have demonstrated more alertness and proactiveness, they too submitted only 33,326 forms (Form 6) for inclusion in the draft roll and 2,07,565 forms (Form 7) for deletion.”
On new eligible citizens attaining the age of 18 years or more, the EC said a total of 15,32,438 applications for first-time inclusion in the electoral roll had been received. “These applications are distinct in nature as they pertain to fresh enrolment and not to claims or objections relating to existing electors,” it said.
