The Election Commission of India (ECI) has received a total of 17,665 claims and objections regarding the draft voter list following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll in Bihar, of which 454 have been resolved, the poll body said in a press note on Wednesday.
According to the ECI, no political party has submitted any claim or objection even after 13 days of the process. The commission has also received 74,525 forms from new electors who have turned 18 or above, including six forms from BLAS.
Under the rules, claims and objections are to be disposed of by the concerned Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) or Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) after a seven-day period and verification of eligibility documents.
The press note also stated that, as per SIR orders, no name can be deleted from the draft list published on August 1, 2025 without a speaking order from the ERO or AERO, following an enquiry and giving the person a fair and reasonable opportunity to respond.
The ECI published the draft voter list in Bihar on August 1 after completing the SIR exercise. The final electoral roll will be released after the one-month period for claims and objections ends.
As of Tuesday, the ECI had recorded 13,970 complaints from electors, with 341 disposed of. At that stage, 63,591 forms had been received from new voters aged 18 or above, including six from BLAS.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the Supreme Court began hearing a series of petitions challenging the ECI’s decision to conduct the SIR of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar. The court observed that the commission was correct in stating that an Aadhaar card is not conclusive proof of citizenship.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi remarked that the inclusion or exclusion of citizens and non-citizens from electoral rolls falls under the ECI’s remit.
During the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha, argued that excluding around 65 lakh voters from the draft electoral roll without any objection to their inclusion was unlawful.
In response, the bench said that under the rules, excluded individuals must apply for inclusion, and objections would only be considered at that stage.
The court also rejected the argument that most people in Bihar lack the documents requested by the ECI during the SIR process.
Justice Kant remarked, “Bihar is part of India. If they don’t have them, other states won’t either. There must be something to prove you are a citizen of India… everybody possesses some certificate. You need it even to buy a SIM. OBC, SC, ST certificates… It is a very sweeping argument that in Bihar, nobody possesses these documents.”
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