The Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission to allow excluded voters to submit their claims online or physically with Aadhaar card or any one of the 11 prescribed documents in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
Emphasising that the entire enumeration exercise has to be voter friendly, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi at the same time expressed surprise over political parties not coming forward to assist the voters, who have been excluded from the draft list published on August 1, in filing objections, It then directed the chief electoral officer of Bihar to implead the political parties in the court proceedings.
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the EC, submitted that the poll panel has put the entire list of 65 lakh excluded voters in public domain with reasons by displaying it at the office of district returning officer, chief electoral officer office, Panchayat and block level office, websites and social media handles.
The lists have been put up at every polling booth also, he added.
The court asked the political parties to file the status report by the next date of hearing on the claim form they had facilitated in the filing by excluded voters. It posted the matter for further hearing on September 8.
It directed the recognised political parties to issue specific directions to their over 1.60 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) to facilitate filling of the claim forms of 65 lakh excluded voters except for those who are dead and those who have voluntarily migrated to other constituencies.
