Supreme Court ropes in political parties to help ECI return Bihar’s excluded voters to electoral roll

The Supreme Court on Friday (August 22, 2025) directed political parties contesting the Bihar Assembly election to help the Election Commission of India (EC) bring back voters left out of the draft electoral roll published as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi directed State party chiefs to instruct their booth-level agents (BLAs), working on the ground in Bihar, to assist excluded voters file their claims and objections for inclusion in the electoral roll.

Follow the Bihar SIR row SC hearing highlights on August 22, 2025

The draft roll has omitted 65 lakh voters in Bihar, in comparison to the electoral roll published just before the SIR exercise. The court order conveyed a sense of urgency, with barely over a week remaining before the claims-and-objections stage of the SIR draws to an end on September 1.

Deadline extension

The court clarified that voters can file their claims and objections online in a bid to save time. Excluded voters can either attach their Aadhaar card, as permitted by the Supreme Court, or any of the 11 indicative documents listed by the ECI, as proof of identity and residence, with their claims and objections.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the main Opposition party in Bihar, urged the court to extend the deadline beyond September 1. Justice Kant asked the ECI to “examine” this aspect if there was an “overwhelming response” from excluded voters. Justice Bagchi remarked that with the inclusion of Aadhaar as a relevant document in the claims-and-objections stage, the ECI may need more time to complete the verification of the pleas filed for inclusion in the electoral roll.

Blaming political parties

At one point, the court seemed to blame the political parties for not taking the initiative to assist the voters, and for bringing things to such a pass at the 11th hour.

“We are surprised why the parties are not doing anything. Political workers are the best persons in rural areas and villages. Why is there a distance between the people and the local political workers?” Justice Kant asked.

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The ECI, represented by senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, criticised political parties for taking a contrarian view about the SIR. He assured the court that no eligible voter would be left out of the electoral process.

“Political parties have 1.6 lakh BLAs. Each BLA can verify 10 excluded names on the list.That would be 16 lakh names a day. It will take only five days for BLAs to verify the list. This is in addition to individual excluded voters also coming forward to file claims,” Mr. Dwivedi said, conveying the ECI’s optimism in court.

He said that 84,305 claims have been initiated so far. Over 2.5 lakh new voters who have recently reached the age of 18 in Bihar have come forward to join the electors’ ranks, signalling the groundswell to join the electoral process.

“Political parties merely raise hue and cry to serve their political ends… Political parties could appoint more BLAs, but they will not,” Mr. Dwivedi said, expressing the poll body’s disappointment with the conduct of the parties.

‘Parties can assist ECI’

The Bench said that claims and objections may not come from all the 65 lakh excluded voters. It quoted the ECI’s figures that 22 lakh among the 65 lakh were dead, while 36 lakh had migrated out of Bihar, and eight lakh were duplicate entries on the roll.

“So, it is just that names from the migrated 36 lakh have to come forward with claims,” Justice Kant summarised.

“Political parties could play a role in assisting the EC. They could verify the names. The Chief Election Commissioner had held a press conference inviting political parties, mass organisations, etc, to assist the EC,” Mr. Dwivedi appealed.

The court impleaded the parties as respondents, issued notice and directed status reports to be filed on September 8, the next date of hearing.

‘SIR legality under dispute’

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, intervening on behalf of voters’ groups from Bihar, objected to the emphasis on “minutiae” when the very legality of the SIR process was under dispute in the top court.

“All this minutiae is being presented as if the entire SIR is legal. There is no legal basis for filing enumeration forms. One day they will come in Delhi with pre-filled enumeration forms,” Mr. Sankaranarayanan objected.

Justice Kant replied that larger questions would be looked into later on.

‘Voter-friendly exercise needed’

Mr. Sibal and senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, appearing for several other Opposition parties including the Congress, said the present litigation was “not about BLAs, but the rights of the ordinary voters of Bihar”.

Justice Kant made a brief comment that “the entire exercise should be voter-friendly”.

Advocates Prashant Bhushan and Neha Rathi, for the Association for Democratic Reforms, countered the ECI’s submission that only two claims and objections had been received through the BLAs so far. “BLAs are not being permitted to submit objections,” Mr. Bhushan submitted.