SC agrees to take up on July 10 petitions against Bihar electoral roll revision

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up on July 10 petitions challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of Assembly polls to be held in October-November, 2025.

A Bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Joymalya Bagchi listed the matter for hearing on Thursday after senior advocates Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Gopal Sankaranarayanan and several other counsel mentioned petitions filed by various NGOs and political parties seeking urgent hearing, apprehending a large number of voters might get disenfranchised.

The petitioners included the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), RJD MP Manoj Jha, TMC MP Mahua Moitra, activist Yogendra Yadav and others.

The senior advocates submitted that voters who failed to submit the forms with the specified documents will face the harsh consequence of being deleted from the electoral roll, even if they had voted in elections during the last 20 years.

More pleas in SC against Bihar poll roll revision; EC defends move, says process on track

Noting that there were eight crore electorate in Bihar, Sibal and Singhvi submitted that it’s an impossible task. “The timeline is so strict, and by July 25 if you don’t submit the form, you will be out,” Singhvi said.

However, Justice Dhulia pointed out that the timeline didn’t have sanctity as elections had not been notified.

The Election Commission had on June 24 ordered an SIR in Bihar — first since 2003 — to weed out ineligible individuals and ensure only eligible citizens were included in the electoral rolls. The exercise was necessitated by rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths, and inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants, it said.

The EC has clarified that while voters were required to “submit their documents any time before July 25, 2025”, those who failed to do so would get an opportunity “during the Claims & Objections period also”. It has urged people to “beware of statements being made by a few persons, who without reading the SIR order dated 24 June 2025…. are attempting to confuse the public with their incorrect and misleading statements”.

The SIR was progressing as per EC’s order and the draft list would contain the names of existing voters whose enumeration forms were received, the Bihar Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said in a social media post on Sunday.

Apprehending potential disenfranchisement of nearly three crore voters, the ADR had on Saturday filed a PIL, urging the top court to set aside the EC’s SIR Order as being arbitrary and violative of Articles 14, 19, 21, 325 and 326 of the Constitution as well as provisions of Representation of People’s Act, 1950 and Rule 21A of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

Pending its petition, the petitioner NGO urged the top court to stay the implementation of EC’s June 24, 2025 SIR Order to conduct an SIR of the electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.

In his petition, RJD MP Manoj Jha contended that the process was not only hasty and ill-timed, but also had the effect of disenfranchising crores of voters, thereby robbing them of their constitutional right to vote.

Mahua Moitra has sought setting aside of the EC’s June 24 order for SIR, alleging it violated various provisions of the Constitution and provisions of Representation of People (RP) Act, 1950 and Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) too has filed petitions restraining the EC from conducting an SIR in Bihar, alleging that the EC has “not defined any legitimate aim, nor sought to avoid disproportionate harm to electors.”

Activist Yogendra Yadav has also sought an immediate stay on the SIR, calling it “manifestly arbitrary, unreasonable, and violative of electoral laws.”

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