NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on September 1 the pleas filed by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) seeking an extension of the deadline for filing claims and objections in the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
The current deadline expires the same day.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi listed the matter for Monday after advocate Prashant Bhushan and senior advocate Shoeb Alam, representing the RJD, argued that lakhs of claims were still being filed and more time was needed. Advocate Nizam Pasha, appearing for AIMIM, pointed out that nearly 1.75 lakh claims have already been submitted, with numbers rising rapidly.
Pasha submitted that 80,000 claims were filed before the August 22 order while post the order 95,000 claims have been filed.
“We are requesting that these applications be listed as early as possible,” Pasha said.
When the bench asked why the parties had not approached the Election Commission (EC), Bhushan replied that they had, but their request was ignored.
On August 22, the top court had directed the EC to allow excluded voters to file claims both online and offline during the revision exercise. Earlier, on August 14, it asked the EC to publish details of 65 lakh excluded voters by August 19 to ensure transparency and accept Aadhaar as valid identity proof.
The ongoing voter roll revision—the first since 2003—has triggered a political storm in Bihar after the draft list showed a reduction in registered voters from 7.9 crore to 7.24 crore. — With inputs from PTI
