Verification stage of Bihar SIR commences

THe deadline for filing claims and objections related to to the special intensive rescript of electoral rolls in Bihar ended on mon and the Election charge of bharat (ECI) informed the Supreme Court that while applications received after September 1 will be recorded, they will be examined only after the final electoral roll is published.The revision began with house-to-house verification of electors between June 24 and July 25. The draft roll was published on August 1, and the period for filing claims and objections ran from August 1 to September 1. Election Registration Officers (EROs) are now required to examine all applications, issue notices where necessary, give people time to respond to the notices, and then finalise the rolls.At a hearing on Monday, the Supreme Court directed political parties to assist electors in submitting applications in the proper forms and asked the Bihar State Legal Services Authority to deploy paralegal volunteers to provide support.Data released by the Commission on Monday showed that 36,475 applications were filed for inclusion and 217,049 applications for exclusion with respect to the draft roll. A total of 40,630 of these applications have been disposed of after the seven-day verification period. Meanwhile, RJD and CPI(ML) have filed 119 objections and 25 claims for inclusion.From new electors who have turned 18 years of age or above, including forms submitted through booth-level agents, 1,656,886 (1.65 million) applications were received. Of these, 91,462 have been disposed of after verification.The poll body’s lawyer, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, also informed the court on Monday that 99.5% electors on the draft electoral roll have submitted their documents for verification.The Commission officials referred to the standing instructions on preparation of the roll during elections that state that inclusions and deletions are permitted up to the last date of filing nominations. The operative roll for the election will be the version prepared on the last date of nominations. The electoral roll will be maintained as a single updated document without re-serialisation of entries. Deleted entries will not be removed, and all additions made after the last final publication will be placed in chronological order beginning with the last serial number of the previous roll. Deletions and modifications will be marked in the last final roll. The Commission has also clarified that after 10 days from the announcement of the election schedule, deletions and corrections will not be processed. Applications filed for deletion and correction after this date will be disposed of only after the election. For applications relating to shifting of residence, additions can continue until the last date of nominations. The deletion at the old address will be carried out after the election, and such names will be placed in the absentee, shifted or duplicate list at the previous place of enrolment, state the instructions.The electoral roll is maintained through two processes: continuous updation and special revision. Continuous updation allows electors to file applications for enrolment, deletion or correction throughout the year except for a restricted period during elections. Under this process, forms are submitted individually and acted upon by the Electoral Registration Officer. During an election, deletions and corrections are stopped ten days after the programme is announced, with applications received during the restricted period taken up only after polling.The special intensive revision is a scheduled exercise carried out by the Commission to update the entire roll. It includes field verification, publication of a draft roll, a fixed period for claims and objections, and the finalisation of entries. The Bihar revision followed this process, beginning with house-to-house verification, draft publication on August 1, and the claims and objections window that closed on September 1. The final roll will be published after verification of all applications submitted by the deadline.The final electoral roll for Bihar will be published after verification of all applications filed up to September 1.