New Delhi [India], August 16 (HBTV): The Election Commission of India (ECI) has received a total of 28,370 claims and objections regarding the draft voter list following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar, of which 857 have been disposed of.

The poll panel said that after 15 days of the release of the draft voter list, no claim or objection has been submitted by any political party.

A total of 1,03,703 forms have been received from new electors on attaining 18 years of age or above, including six forms from booth-level agents (BLAs).

As per rules, the claims and objections are to be disposed of by the concerned Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) or Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) after the expiry of seven days from the verification of eligibility documents.

According to the SIR orders, no name can be deleted from the draft list published on August 1, 2025, without passing a speaking order by the ERO or AERO after conducting an enquiry and giving a fair and reasonable opportunity.

The ECI published the draft voter list after the SIR exercise in poll-bound Bihar on August 1. The final voter list will be released after the one-month period given for claims and objections.

Earlier, till Thursday, the poll body had received 23,557 complaints from electors, out of which 341 were disposed of. A total of 87,966 forms had been received from new electors on attaining 18 years of age or above, including six forms from BLAs.

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Election Commission of India to publish on the district electoral officer's website the list of approximately 65 lakh persons excluded or deleted from the Bihar draft electoral rolls, along with the reasons for their deletion such as death, migration or duplication.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi also asked the ECI to give wide publicity to the list through local newspapers, Doordarshan, radio and official social media platforms. It directed that a booth-wise list of the 65 lakh people be displayed at all Panchayat Bhawans as well as block development and panchayat offices so that people have manual access to the information.

The bench said the information should also be displayed on the website of the Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar, with documents searchable by EPIC numbers. It further directed the ECI to obtain a compliance report from all booth-level and district-level officers and to file a consolidated compliance report by Tuesday.

‘Aggrieved electors of Bihar whose names were not included could file their objections by applying with a copy of their Aadhaar card,’ the bench told the ECI.

The Supreme Court has posted for hearing on August 22 a batch of petitions challenging the poll panel's move to conduct the SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar.

(ANI)