SC to hear parties’ pleas seeking extension of deadline for filing of Bihar SIR claims on Sept 1

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to take up on September 1 petitions to consider pleas seeking the extension of deadline to file claims and objections with regard to the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.

The matter was mentioned before a Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi by advocate Prashant Bhushan who said the RJD and AIMIM had filed applications for extension of the September 1 deadline to file objections to the draft voters list and claims for inclusion by those excluded.

As the Bench asked why the petitioners did not request the poll panel for extension of time, Bhushan said they had already done it.

"Since the last order of this court issued on August 22, which permitted the filing of claims along with Aadhaar card, the number of claims have doubled from 84,305 on August 22 to 1,78,948 electors on August 27 in only five days," the RJD said in its plea seeking extension of the deadline by two weeks.

The party alleged that in many cases, officers refused to accept the claims with the Aadhaar card only and instead insisted on one of the 11 documents mentioned in the EC order of June 24 in "utter disregard to the orders passed by the court".

Seeking extension of timeline to file claims and objections by excluded electors by four weeks, the AIMIM said the EC data indicates the court's orders have increased awareness among electors about their exclusion in the draft list and the participation by parties has led to a larger number of claims and objections being filed in the last one week.

The top court had on August 22 directed the EC to accept online applications, supported by requisite documents or an Aadhaar number, from those excluded from the draft electoral rolls during the ongoing SIR in Bihar.