NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday did not extend the Sept 1 deadline for filing claims and objections to Bihar Draft Voters List prepared after special intensive revision (SIR) as the Election Commission said such submissions can be made by people till the last date of nominations for the Assembly elections. “Most importantly, the filing of claims or objections or corrections is not barred after Sept 1. These can be submitted even after the deadline. The applications submitted for claims, objections or corrections after Sept 1 will be considered after the electoral roll has been finalised,” Election Commission told a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, while arguing that extension of deadline would create complications. For EC, senior advocates Rakesh Dwivedi and Maninder Singh said, “The process of consideration of claims and objections continues until the last date of filing of nominations, and all inclusions and exclusions are integrated in the final roll.” After the recording of EC’s statement, the bench expressed surprise that despite several SC directives to political parties which protested SIR, only 128 claims and objections were filed: 10 by RJD for inclusion, and 118 by CPI(ML) Liberation (103 challenging inclusion and rest for inclusion). “What is bothering us is that despite all these directions passed by the Supreme Court, the political parties have come out with only 128 claims and objections. The booth level agents (BLAs) are grassroots-level party workers. Why are BLAs not coming out with lists of people allegedly excluded from the draft voter list? And what is more surprising is that political parties are filing more applications for deletion rather than inclusion,” the bench said. Finding that the political parties are not assisting those among the 65-lakh people deleted from the voter list to file claims, the bench directed the state legal services authority to instruct by Tuesday noon its district units to activate para-legal volunteers and assist people in getting enrolled. EC, as per its records, said, “Approximately 99.5% of the electors (out of 7.24 crore) featured in the draft electoral roll for the state of Bihar have already submitted their eligibility documents pertaining to the SIR exercise.” Importantly, the bench asked the district legal services authorities (DLSAs) to send a confidential report on the issues faced by people in inclusion, correction or deletion of their names from the voter list. It posted the matter for further hearing on Sept 8. EC told the apex court that, in contrast with political parties, individual electors have been more alert and proactive, having submitted 33,326 forms for inclusion in the draft roll and 2,07,565 forms for deletion. EC said extension of the deadline would disrupt the schedule for finalisation of electoral roll. “The Sept 1-30 period is fixed for considering claims and objections and involves consideration of issuing notices and responses to doubtful cases,” it said.
