The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear pleas from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) on September 1, seeking an extension of the deadline to file claims and objections in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
The current deadline for submitting claims and objections is also September 1.
The Bench listed the matter for Monday ( September 1) after senior advocates Prashant Bhushan and Shoeb Alam, representing RJD, highlighted the urgent need for more time.
Advocate Nizam Pasha, appearing for AIMIM, argued that the number of objections has surged significantly.
"Before the August 22 order, around 80,000 claims were filed. Since then, an additional 95,000 have come in. The deadline needs to be extended," Pasha told the bench.
When asked why the parties hadn't approached the Election Commission first, Bhushan responded that they had, but the request was not acted upon.
The Supreme Court had earlier intervened in the matter, directing the Election Commission on August 22 to allow excluded voters to submit claims online, in addition to physical submissions.
Prior to that, on August 14, it had ordered the poll body to publish by August 19 the details of 65 lakh voters excluded from the draft electoral rolls and to accept Aadhaar as valid ID proof.
(With inputs from PTI)