NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine on Monday a plea by RJD for an extension of September 8 deadline for filing claims and objections for voter registration in Bihar in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan on behalf of the petitioners mentioned the matter before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi seeking one week extension of the September 1 deadline.
He said that RJD and few other parties have filed applications seeking the extension of the September 1 deadline to file claims and objections with regard to the draft voters list.
The court was told that parties wanted one week extension of the deadline claiming that over 1,75,000 claims were made before and after the August 22 court order.
In its application, the RJD, however, sought extension of time till September 15 to accept the claims of deleted voters.
On August 22, the court had ordered that the persons who are excluded from the draft electoral roll during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in poll-bound Bihar can submit their applications for inclusion through online mode and that physical submission of forms is not necessary.
It had said that individual person at their own or with assistance of booth-level agents (BLAs) of political are entitled to apply online and not necessary to submit application in physical form.
The bench had directed all 12 political parties in Bihar to issue specific directions to party workers to assist in people in filing and submission of requisite forms with any 11 documents in form 6 or Aadhaar Card to get themselves included in the voters list.
The court had said BLAs of all political parties are directed to make endeavour that approximately 65 lakh persons not included in the draft rolls are facilitated, except those who are dead or have voluntarily migrated, in submitting their objections by cutoff date of September 1.
In a batch of petitions challenging the move to conduct SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, the Election Commission had also filed an affidavit saying the list of names and details of 65 lakh electors in Bihar who were not included in the draft roll published on August 1 had been posted on the websites of all 38 District Electoral Officers in the state.
The list also contained the reasons for their non-inclusion, including death, shifting of ordinary residence or duplicate entries, ECI had told the apex court.
ECI had filed affidavit in compliance of August 14 directions of the Supreme Court directing it to publish an enumerated, booth-wise list of approximately 65 lakh electors not included in the draft electoral roll during the ongoing SIR exercise in poll-bound Bihar.
The matter related to the pleas seeking a direction to quash the EC's June 24 directive that requires large sections of voters in Bihar to submit proof of citizenship to remain on the electoral rolls.
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