Supreme Court Deploys Paralegals to Help Bihar Voters in Electoral Roll Disputes

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Bihar State Legal Services Authority to assign paralegal volunteers (PLVs) to help voters and political parties submit online claims, objections, or corrections in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the State’s electoral rolls.

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi clarified that the deadline for filing objections would not be extended beyond September 1. However, the Court noted the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) assurance that even claims and objections filed after this date will still be considered before the final electoral roll is published.

The Court recorded that the process of reviewing claims would continue until the last date for filing nominations in the upcoming Assembly elections. To make this process smoother, it directed that PLVs be deployed to assist voters and submit confidential reports to District Legal Services Authorities, which will then be compiled at the State level.

During the hearing, the Court reiterated that Aadhaar must be given due recognition as an identity document. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), raised concerns about transparency and argued that voters must know what documents the ECI has officially acknowledged. The ECI’s counsel, Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, responded that voters would be informed of any document discrepancies within seven days, adding that nearly 99.5% of the 7.24 crore voters had already submitted documents.

Petitioners also highlighted issues such as recent floods in Bihar, delays in notifying voters, and the ECI’s insistence on Form 6 for inclusion requests. Dwivedi dismissed these claims, asserting that new forms are regularly shared with political parties.

Earlier, the Court was told that nearly 65 lakh names were dropped from the draft roll released on August 1. While the ECI assured that no deletion would happen without notice and hearing, the Court had directed the Commission to upload the list of deleted names and allowed Aadhaar to be used as proof for re-inclusion.

The matter will now be taken up again on September 8.