The Supreme Court on Thursday directed all legal services authorities in Bihar to provide free legal aid counsel to voters whose names were excluded from the draft electoral rolls following the Election Commission’s special intensive revision (SIR) exercise in the state.
The order comes a day after a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi asked the Election Commission to submit details of the 3.7 lakh voters whose names were deleted after the SIR process.
Noting that the time for filing appeals against exclusion from the electoral rolls was “running short,” the court issued interim directions to the Bihar State Legal Services Authority (SLA).
“Since time to file appeals is running short, we deem it appropriate as an interim measure to request the Executive Chairman, Bihar SLA, to send communication, preferably today itself, to all secretaries of DLSAs to provide services of paralegal volunteers, free legal aid counsels to assist excluded persons to file statutory appeals,” the bench was quoted as saying by LiveLaw.
The court further directed that secretaries of District Legal Services Authorities should immediately re-notify the mobile numbers and full details of paralegal volunteers in each village. These volunteers will coordinate with Booth Level Officers to collect information about excluded voters, inform them of their right to appeal, help draft the appeals, and provide legal assistance free of cost.
The bench clarified that the benefit of this order will also extend to individuals whose names were not included in the draft list.
During the hearing, the Election Commission highlighted that a petitioner had submitted fake details, falsely claiming that a person’s name had been excluded from the electoral roll.
Expressing concern, the bench remarked, “We wonder that such person even exists.”
Bihar’s 243-seat Assembly will go to the polls in two phases, on November 6 and 11, with results scheduled to be declared on November 14.
