SC orders free legal aid for voters affected by Bihar SIR to help file appeals against exclusion

Supreme Court of India

The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered free legal aid for the voters that have been affected by the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar.

A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi requested the Bihar State Legal Services Authority to issue all the necessary communication to the District Legal Services Authorities to ensure that paralegal volunteers and legal aid counsels who can assist the excluded persons in filing appeals are made available to those affected, Live Law reported.

"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. Secretaries to immediately re-notify mobile numbers and full description of paralegal volunteers in each village, who in turn will contact the Booth Level Officers. They will collect information with respect to persons who have been excluded from the final list. Para Legal Volunteers would reach out to persons, informing them of their right to appeal. They will offer services to draft appeals and provide free legal aid counsel," the bench observed, according to the Live Law report.

This came after the Apex Court on Tuesday asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to furnish details of the 3.66 lakh voters deleted from the electoral roll that has been prepared after Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision.

The bench also observed that the validity of the SIR in Bihar cannot be made in the dark and asked the petitioners to provide affidavits with examples of at least 100-200 such persons who have been wrongfully deleted from the voter list.

EC, however, told the Supreme Court that most of the names added in the final list after the publication of the draft list on August 30 were of new voters and that no complaint or appeal has been filed till now by any excluded voter.