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,

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