EC said 99.5 per cent of Bihar’s 7.24 crore voters have verified documents.
Court noted over 1.3 lakh objections filed for deletions, raising concerns.
Aadhaar can’t prove citizenship, but SC urged vigilance in excluded cases.
The Election Commission of India stated that after the electoral roll was finalised, claims, objections, and corrections made to the draft electoral roll created during the Bihar special intensive revision (SIR) operation could be submitted until September 1.
According to PTI, the deadline for submitting claims and objections to the draft electoral register is today, and the final electoral roll will be released on September 30, as per the election panel's June 24 timeline for the Bihar SIR.
A panel consisting of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi took note of the Election Commission's (EC) reply, which stated that claims and objections could be submitted up to the deadline for nomination forms in each assembly constituency.
"As regards extension of time, a note submitted by the ECI says that filing of claims/objections or corrections is not barred after September 1. It is stated that the claims/objections/corrections can be submitted even after the deadline, that is, after September 1, and the same will be considered after the roll has been finalised," the bench noted.
The top court order further recorded, "The process will continue until the last date of nominations and all inclusions/exclusions are integrated in the final roll. In light of this stand, let the claims/objections/corrections be continued to be filed." The bench then granted liberty to the political parties to submit their replies in response to the EC's note.
Additionally, the top court described the misunderstanding around the Bihar SIR as "largely a trust issue" and ordered the state legal service authority to assign paralegal volunteers to help political parties and individual voters fill out claims and objections to the draft register, which was released on August 1.
The bench stated that the state's compiled data will be taken into consideration on September 8 and that the paralegal volunteers will present a confidential report to the relevant district courts.
Speaking on behalf of the EC, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi stated that the entire timeframe for finalising the electoral roll would be disrupted if the deadlines for making claims and objections were extended past September 1.
"The timelines have been fixed according to the rules, and a maximum time of thirty days has been provided for filing claims and objections," he said.
PTI reported that Dwivedi pointed out that according to the records, approximately 99.5 per cent of the 7.24 crore electors featured in the draft electoral roll for Bihar had already submitted their eligibility documents for the SIR exercise.
"The exercise of verification of these documents is currently ongoing, and is scheduled to be completed by September 25, 2025, in accordance with the schedule provided in the SIR order dated June 24, 2025," he said.
Dwivedi added that the assertion made by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of filing 36 claims through its booth-level agents was "incorrect and misleading" and the correct position, records showed, was only 10.
"However, as is admitted in the IA (interlocutory application), all 36 claims have been accepted by the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and are being processed accordingly," Dwivedi said, pointing out that CPI (ML) filed 15 claims for inclusion and 103 objections for exclusion as of August 31.
According to the senior attorney, as of August 30, just 22,723 claims had been lodged for inclusion and 1,34,738 objections had been filed for exclusion since the top court's August 22 judgment.
Senior attorneys Kapil Sibal and Shoeb Alam pleaded with the bench to issue a direction directing that Aadhaar cards be regarded as eligibility documents for the 7.24 crore voters whose names were listed on the draft electoral roster.
According to PTI, the bench stated that although it has already issued an order to accept Aadhaar for 65 lakh voters who were removed, it is unable to improve the status of Aadhaar as stipulated by the statute.
"Section 9 of the Aadhaar Act is very clear that Aadhaar number is not evidence of citizenship or domicile," the bench told the counsel.
However, during the next hearing, the bench requested that they bring to its attention any instances in which Aadhaar was not taken into account in the case of excluded voters.
In his appearance on behalf of the RJD, advocate Prashant Bhushan said that the EC was not conducting the SIR exercise in accordance with the correct protocol and asked the court to extend the deadline.
The bench voiced worry about the huge number of objections submitted to have names removed from the draft roll and stated that the EC must adhere to the process outlined in the June 24 ruling pertaining to the Bihar SIR.
"Political parties need to activate themselves," it said and posted the matter for September 8.
The RJD's plea filed through advocate Fauzia Shakil and the AIMIM through advocate Nizam Pasha have sought extension of the deadline to file claims and objections in the poll revision exercise in poll-bound Bihar.
Bihar's voters' list change, the first since 2003, caused a major political uproar.
According to the SIR's results, there were 7.24 crore registered voters in Bihar following the operation, down from 7.9 crore before it.
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