NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to allow excluded voters in poll-bound Bihar to file claims online as well as through physical submissions during the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said claim forms could be submitted with an Aadhaar number and any one of 11 prescribed documents. It also expressed concern that political parties had not filed objections regarding 65 lakh excluded voters and ordered the Bihar chief electoral officer to implead them in the proceedings.
“All political parties shall submit a status report by the next hearing on the claim forms they facilitated for excluded voters,” the bench said, scheduling the matter for September 8. The court further directed that election officials provide acknowledgement receipts to booth-level agents of parties submitting physical claim forms.
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the ECI, urged the court to grant a 15-day window to prove that exclusions were minimal. “The political parties are making a hue and cry. Things are not bad. Have faith in us, and we will show there are no exclusions,” he said.
The ECI informed the court that 85,000 excluded voters had already submitted claims and over 2 lakh new voters had registered under the SIR.
Earlier, on August 14, the court had asked the ECI to publish by August 19 details of the 65 lakh excluded voters, including reasons for their removal, to ensure transparency and restore public confidence.
The revision—Bihar’s first since 2003—has triggered a political storm, reducing the number of registered voters from 7.9 crore to 7.24 crore.
