Bihar SIR row: SC to hear RJD, AIMIM pleas on extension of deadline for claim filing on September 1

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear on September 1 the RJD and AIMIM's pleas for extending the deadline to file claims and objections in the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.

The deadline for filing claims and objections for inclusion or exclusion of elector names from the draft roll is September 1.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi on Friday agreed to list the applications filed by political parties on Monday, which implied September 1 as the parties requested an urgent hearing.

But the order uploaded in the evening said all petitions will come up for hearing on September 8. However, a latest order uploaded on the apex court said all applications will be heard on September 1.

Sources said some parties had approached the court master and objected to the date of September 8 reflected in the order, as the bench had said only "list on Monday" and the applications for deadline extension would be infructuous after September 1, which is also a Monday.

Sources point out the order was amended on Saturday morning after the inadvertent error was spotted. Both September 1 and September 8 are Mondays, and the main matters related to SIR are listed on September 8.

On Friday, advocate Prashant Bhushan and senior advocate Shoeb Alam, appearing for the Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD), mentioned to the bench about several parties filing pleas for the extension of the deadline.

Advocate Nizam Pasha, appearing for the AIMIM, sought the extension due to the large-scale filing of claims and objections. "The number of claims filed is exponentially rising. The deadline needs to be extended," Alam said.

Pasha said over 80,000 claims were filed before the August 22 order, whereas after the order, around 95,000 claims have been filed so far. "We are requesting that these applications be listed as early as possible," he said.

The bench asked the petitioners why they hadn't approached the Election Commission (EC) for relief.

Bhushan claimed their request was not considered by the EC.

The plea filed by the RJD through advocate Fauzia Shakil said that in the SIR, the number of polling booths had increased to 90,712, and the party appointed booth-level agents (BLAs) in 47,506 polling booths, which is approximately 52 per cent of the polling booths.

The party said that after the August 22 court order, the claims along with Aadhaar card were collected by the BLAs and despite the acknowledgment of claims by booth level officers (BLO) claims were not lodged and were not reflected on the daily EC status report against the party to portray a wrong narrative that the BLAs of political parties were not cooperating and filing claims.

"Since the last order of this court dated August 22, 2025, which permitted the filing of claims along with Aadhaar card, the number of claims has doubled from 84,305 on August 22, 2025, to 1,78,948 electors on August 27, 2025, in only five days," the RJD said.

The plea alleged that in many instances across districts, officers refused to accept the claims with the Aadhaar card only and instead insisted on one of the 11 documents mentioned in the ECI order of June 24 in "utter disregard to the orders passed by the court".

Seeking direction to the poll panel for extending the timeline by two weeks and accepting the claims of deleted voters till September 15, the RJD said the EC's daily SIR update showed the number of claims had increased with over a lakh claims filed in the last week, and 33,349 filed in the past two days.

"The period of filing claims expires on September 1, 2025. Unless extended, genuine electors whose names have been erroneously deleted by the EC will not be able to submit their claims and consequently will be barred from exercising their right to vote in the coming elections.

"The EC in its manual on electoral rolls has also mentioned that no suo motu deletion shall be done in the election year. In the present case, the period of filing claims, unless extended, will have an impact on the purity of electoral rolls," it added.

The AIMIM, in its plea, sought an extension of the timeline to file claims and objections by excluded electors seeking inclusion in the electoral roll of Bihar by a period of four weeks.

On August 22, the top court directed the ECI to allow excluded voters to submit claims through online mode besides making physical submissions in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise of the electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar.

On August 14, the top court directed the poll panel to publish by August 19 details of the 65 lakh voters excluded from the draft electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar to enhance "transparency" in the SIR of the voters' list and allow Aadhaar as an acceptable document for identity proof.

The revision of the voters' list in Bihar -- the first since 2003 -- has sparked a huge political row. The SIR's findings have reduced the total number of registered voters in Bihar, from 7.9 crore before the exercise to 7.24 crore.