New Delhi, September 7: The Supreme Court will on Monday resume hearing a batch of petitions, including those filed by political parties, challenging the Election Commission’s June 24 decision to carry out a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi will take up responses from petitioners such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), AIMIM, NGOs and activists on the Election Commission’s note. The poll body has stated that 99.5% of Bihar’s 7.24 crore electors had submitted their eligibility documents during the SIR process.
The court has been examining these petitions since August 22, when it directed the Election Commission to permit excluded voters to file claims both online and offline. On September 1, while hearing applications seeking extension of deadlines, the Commission informed the court that claims, corrections and objections could still be filed after September 1 but would only be considered once the final roll is prepared.
The bench also observed that the controversy over the Bihar SIR is “largely a trust issue” and asked the state legal services authority to engage paralegal volunteers to help voters and political parties in submitting claims and objections.
According to the Election Commission, despite opposing any deadline extension, only 22,723 claims for inclusion and 1,34,738 objections for exclusion were received between August 22 and August 30, after the court’s intervention. The draft roll had been published on August 1.
