Supreme Court Flags ‘Trust Deficit’ Over Voter List Revision in Bihar

The Supreme Court noted on Monday that the dispute over Bihar's special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls is more about a "trust issue" between political parties and the Election Commission of India (ECI) than it is about deadlines.

State officials had petitioned a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi to extend the deadline of September 1 for submitting claims and objections to the draft voter list.

The ECI's argument that the process continues after September 1 was noted by the court during the hearing. However, even after the draft rolls are finalized and until the deadline for submitting nominations, claims, objections, and corrections will still be accepted.

The bench recognized that mistrust still exists in spite of this guarantee.

The bench explained that submitting claims and objections is the first step in the revision process. It also pointed out that the current petitions did not clearly show instances of wrongful deletions or exclusions.

The Supreme Court instructed political parties to continue actively participating in the process and affirmed in its ruling that the filing of claims, objections, and corrections would remain open past September 1. Additionally, it requested that petitioners respond to the ECI's note with affidavits.

The court asked the Bihar Legal Services Authority to make sure that each district designates paralegal volunteers, whose names and phone numbers are made public, to help voters and political parties submit claims, objections, or corrections online in order to boost public trust. The court requested that these directives be issued by September 2 in the afternoon.

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