EC defends revision of electoral rolls in Bihar

The Election Commission on Monday defended before the Supreme Court the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the Assembly poll to be held in October-November, 2025, asserting that it has the legal authority and jurisdiction to conduct the exercise.

In an affidavit filed in response to PILs challenging its June 24 order for SIR, the poll panel urged the top court to dismiss the petitions, saying they were based on newspaper articles and were aimed at drumming up the narrative of exclusion. The top court – which had on July 10 asked the EC to consider including Aadhaar, Voter I-Card, Ration Card as documents for SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar – is likely to take up the matter on July 28.

The EC said Aadhaar is not proof of citizenship. “However, this is not to say that Aadhaar can’t be used to supplement other documents to prove eligibility,” it said.

Regarding the top court’s suggestion to accept Voter I-Card as a document during SIR, it said SIR was a de-novo exercise and accepting Voter I-Card would frustrate the very purpose of the exercise.

Given the widespread existence of fake ration cards, the EC has left it to the satisfaction of the officials to accept it.

The EC said Aadhaar, Voter I-Card and Ration Card can’t be accepted as “sufficient standalone documents for the purpose of screening of eligibility prescribed under Article 326”. Alleging that the petitioners have approached the court with unclean hands and have deliberately suppressed facts, the EC said writ petitions can’t be entertained on the basis of mere suspicion of infringement of fundamental rights. Newspaper reports can’t be relied upon as they are merely hearsay and secondary evidence, the commission submitted.

The poll panel termed the petitions as “pre-mature”, saying the SIR process was still underway and there was no material whatsoever for supporting the allegations of arbitrariness, mala fide and unreasonableness. It said for the first time political parties have appointed more than 1.5 lakh booth agents who were working in tandem with block level officers in reaching out to each eligible elector.

The EC had on June 24 ordered SIR in Bihar — first since 2003 — to weed out ineligible individuals and ensure only eligible citizens were included in the electoral rolls.

India