Continuing its support to a petition submitted by the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Supreme Court on Friday accepted the petition to hear it on September 1, requesting an extension of two weeks to voter registration in Bihar. The plea demands a time frame to submit claims and objections in the ongoing revision of the electoral roll since the due date will end on September 1, 2025.
A bench headed by Justice Surya Kant came up with the matter on Monday after the urging of the plea by senior advocates Prashant Bhushan and Shoeb Alam. Bhushan, when asked by Justice Kant whether the RJD had sought an extension before the Election Commission of India (ECI), responded by confirming that an application had been made but had been unsuccessful.
In its petition, the RJD requested the court to order the ECI to allow an additional two weeks to the claims period, until September 15, noting that the number of applications received by voters whose names were locked out had soared. The daily SIR (Special Intensive Revision) updates of ECI show that more than one lakh claims have been made within the last week alone, with 33,349 claims being made in the last two days alone, according to its own daily updates. The party claimed that unless the timeline is furthered, the real electors with names that were falsely removed might be denied their right to vote in the forthcoming elections.
The petition also noted that the Commission’s manual on electoral rolls does not allow sua motu deletions during an election year and that the existing truncated schedule would affect the quality and accuracy of electoral rolls. The court, in its August 22 order permitting Aadhaar as a valid identity evidence on claims, has seen a significant rise in claims since then: there were 84,305 claims on August 22, and 1,78,948 claims on August 27.
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