Supreme Court Orders Online Claims for Excluded Voters in Bihar Electoral Roll Revision

The Supreme Court on Friday, August 22, directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to allow excluded voters in poll-bound Bihar to submit claims online as well as physically during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi permitted claim forms to be submitted with Aadhaar numbers and any one of 11 acceptable documents. The Court expressed surprise that political parties had not actively filed objections regarding 65 lakh excluded voters and asked Bihar’s Chief Electoral Officer to involve them in the proceedings.

The Court ordered all political parties to submit status reports on the claims facilitated by them for the next hearing scheduled on September 8. It also directed election officials to provide acknowledgement receipts to booth-level agents who submit claim forms physically. Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi representing the ECI requested 15 more days to demonstrate that there is no wrongful exclusion. The ECI reported that about 85,000 excluded voters have submitted claim forms, and over 2 lakh new voters have registered under the ongoing SIR process in Bihar.