Bihar SIR: Supreme Court agrees to hear RJD, CPI(ML) plea to extend deadline for filing claims to September 15

The Supreme Court agreed to hear on September 8, 2025 applications filed by political parties, including Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, seeking an extension of the September 1, 2025 deadline to file claims and objections against the exclusion of voters from the draft electoral roll published during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision exercise in Bihar.

The parties have urged the court to direct the Election Commission of India (ECI) to extend the last date for receiving claims and objections to September 15, 2025.

The oral mentioning was made before a Bench headed by Justice Surya Kant by advocates Prashant Bhushan and Neha Rathi, appearing for petitioner NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, on Friday (August 29, 2025).

The parties submitted there has been a substantially increased flow of claims after the court, in an order August 22, allowed excluded voters to file their applications along with their Aadhaar card.

“Since the last order of the Supreme Court on August 22 permitting the filing of claims along with Aadhaar card, the number of claims have doubled from 84,305 on August 22 to 1,78,948 electors on August 27 in only five days. However, across districts, there are many instances where officers have refused to accept the claims only with the Aadhaar card. They have in utter disregard to the Supreme Court order [of August 22] insisted upon one of the 11 documents mentioned in the ECI order of June 26,” RJD submitted.

The August 22, 2025 order was clear that aggrieved need to file, along with their claims for inclusion, either their Aadhar card or any of the 11 indicative documents

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation or CPI(M-L) said BLOs were insisting on the submission of Form 6 for re-inclusion into the Bihar electoral roll. Form 6 of the Registration of Elector Rules 1960 covers new voters or those transferred from one constituency to another.

RJD said claims along with Aadhaar cards collected by its Booth Level Agents (BLAs) and submitted to the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are acknowledged, but are neither lodged nor reflected in the ECI’s daily status report.

“This is to start a wrong narrative that the BLAs of political parties are not cooperating and filing claims… The ECI has completed the exercise without considering Aadhaar card as a standalone document and has prepared the draft roll without considering the Aadhaar card,” RJD said.

Bihar’s main Opposition party said it had tried to counter the ECI’s “narrative” by tweeting the BLOs’ acknowledgements on August 25, 2025.

“The ECI was also marked on the post. However, the ECI did not correct its daily status report… The status report published on August 28 reflects three claims against RJD, when the number of claims filed by BLAs is significantly higher,” the application said.

Besides, RJD said that out of the 7.2 crore electors who had submitted their enumeration forms many were yet to submit any of the 11 enumerated documents. “Direct the ECI to accept the Aadhaar cards of electors who have submitted their enumeration forms and not delete any entry from the draft roll on the ground of insufficiency of documents in case an elector has an Aadhaar card,” the parties urged.

Both parties said the flood situation in Bihar was getting worse, due to which the task of verification of the deleted voters’ list was getting difficult.

“Villages in 12 districts across 54 blocks and 348 panchayats have been impacted by floods… In these extraordinary circumstances, it is unreasonable to expect ordinary citizens to prioritise voter registration over immediate survival and rehabilitation concerns,” RJD and CPI(M-L) said in their separate applications for extension of the deadline to September 15, 2025.