Legal volunteers filed over 3000 claims in Bihar SIR, EC claims political parties not assisting

New Delhi, Sep 15 (PTI) The Election Commission on Monday informed the Supreme Court that political parties and NGOs have not been assisting individual voters in filing their claims and objections in the Bihar SIR exercise, whereas para-legal volunteers filed over 3,000 online claims over the past fortnight.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi expressed surprise over the figures and pointed out that since September 1, the para-legal volunteers, who were asked to assist the political parties and individual voters, have filed 3,311 claims/objections/corrections and out of these grievances, 1027 cases have been resolved.

Justice Surya Kant, while perusing a report filed by the National Legal Service Authority (NALSA), said, "As per the information received from DLSAs, as of now 3,311 claims/objections/corrections have been filed online either by individual voters or by political parties with the assistance of PLVs (para-legal volunteers). Out of these grievances, 1027 cases have been resolved and PLVs will continue to assist the voters in this regard." Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Election Commission, said, "It's true. They have filed over 3000 claims which are now being processed. None of the political parties or the NGOs have come forward in assisting individual voters." On September 1, the top court termed the confusion over the Bihar SIR as "largely a trust issue" and directed the state legal service authority to deploy paralegal volunteers to assist individual voters and political parties in filing claims and objections to the draft roll, which was published on August 1.

The bench said the paralegal volunteers would submit a confidential report with the district judges concerned and the collated data of the state will be considered on September 8.

The revision of the voters' list in Bihar -- the first since 2003 -- sparked a huge political row.

During the SIR, the total number of registered voters in the draft list in Bihar reduced from 7.9 crore to 7.24 crore.

The reasons cited by the EC for non-inclusion of previously registered around 65 lakh voters in the draft rolls included death (22.34 lakh), "permanently shifted/absent" (36.28 lakh) and "already enrolled (at more than one place)" (7.01 lakh). PTI MNL RT