New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has told the Supreme Court that extension of timeline for filing claims and objections under the Bihar Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise beyond 1 September would “disrupt the entire schedule for finalisation of electoral roll”.
However, it clarified that claims and objections regarding the draft electoral roll, which was made public on 1 August, can be filed after the 1 September deadline, but will be considered after the electoral roll has been finalised.
“The period between 01.09.2025 and 25.09.2025 is fixed for considering claims and objections, and the same also involves consideration of issuing notices and responses to doubtful cases. Thus, any extension of timelines will lead to disruption of the exercise and finalisation of electoral roll,” it said in a note to the court, seen by ThePrint.
The ECI then pointed out that the process of consideration of claims and objections continues till the last date of nominations (for the upcoming Bihar assembly election), and all the inclusions and exclusions are integrated in the final roll.
The SC was Monday hearing pleas by political parties for extending the deadline for electors to file claims and objections.
The court has, meanwhile, requested the Bihar State Legal Services Authority to issue directions for deputation or notification of para-legal volunteers who may assist voters and political parties for submitting claims, objections or corrections online.
In its note, the ECI told the court that approximately 99.5% of electors, out of the total 7.24 crore featured in the state’s draft electoral roll, have already submitted their eligibility documents.
The ECI also told the court that out of the 65 lakh names deleted from the draft electoral roll, only 33,351 claims have been submitted for inclusion in the electoral roll. It said that only 22,723 claims had been filed after the Supreme Court order of 22 August directing that excluded voters can submit their applications through online mode, along with any of the 11 documents listed by the ECI or an Aadhaar card.
In contrast, 1,34,738 objections have been filed for exclusion of voters from the list, the ECI said.
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‘Incorrect and misleading’
In its note, the ECI pointed out that as far as the intervention application filed by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was concerned, the party’s assertion that it filed 36 claims through its booth level agents (BLAs) was “incorrect and misleading”.
“The correct position as per records is that only 10 claims have been submitted by the RJD through its validly appointed BLAs. However, as is admitted in the IA (intervention application), all 36 claims have been accepted by the booth level officers (BLOs) and are being processed,” it said.
It further said that the claim by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) that it filed 351 claims and objections and the ECI website showed only 79 claims being filed by them was also “incorrect and misleading”. It said the CPI-ML has submitted 15 claims for inclusion and 103 objections for exclusion as on 31 August, 2025.
During the hearing, ECI’s lawyer senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi termed it “very strange” that political parties were filing more objections for deletion of voters from the draft list, in comparison to the claims for inclusion of voters.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)