Bihar SIR | Supreme Court Agrees To Hear On Monday Pleas To Extend September 1 Deadline For Claims & Objections

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on Monday (September 1) the petitions relating to the Bihar Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls in order to consider applications seeking the extension of deadline to file claims and objections.

A bench led by Justice Surya Kant, and comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, agreed to list the matter on Monday after an urgent mentioning was made by Advocate Prashant Bhushan (representing Association for Democratic Reforms).

Bhushan informed that the leading opposition party in Bihar- the Rashtriya Janata Dal, and few other parties, have filed applications seeking extension of the September 1 deadline to file claims and objections with respect to the draft electoral rolls.

Advocate Nizam Pasha appeared for Bihar MLA Akhtarul Iman and mentioned a similar application seeking extension of deadline. He submitted that 80,000 claims were filed within 3 weeks before the Court's last order and 95,000 claims in the week thereafter.

When the bench asked why the petitioners cannot approach the Election Commission with the request, Bhushan replied that they have already done it, but the EC is refusing to grant the extension. Accordingly, the Court directed that the matter be listed on Monday.

On the last hearing date (August 22), the Court had directed the ECI to allow the excluded voters to submit applications for inclusion through the online mode along with their Aadhaar Card. While posting the matters to September 8, it had orally assured on that occasion the parties that a request for extension of the deadline can be considered later.

Prior to that, the Court had directed the Election Commission to publish the names of approximately 65 lakh persons who were excluded from the draft list, both on the website as well as at the booth level offices, along with the reasons for their exclusion.

Case Title: ASSOCIATION FOR DEMOCRATIC REFORMS AND ORS. Versus ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA, W.P.(C) No. 640/2025 (and connected cases) 

Click Here To Read/Download Order