SC to hear on July 28 pleas challenging EC’s decision to revise Bihar electoral rolls
The Supreme Court will on Monday take up petitions challenging the Election Commission’s decision for a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Electoral Rolls in Bihar ahead of Assembly elections to be held in October-November, 2025.
The matter is listed before a Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi which will examine the poll panel’s affidavit asserting its legal authority and jurisdiction to conduct the SIR and the petitioners’ allegation that the exercise can arbitrarily and without any due process disenfranchise lakhs of citizens from electing their representatives.
On July 10, the top court had asked the Election Commission to consider including Aadhaar, Voter I-Card, Ration Card as documents for SIR of Electoral Rolls in Bihar.
However, in its affidavit filed in response to PILs challenging its June 24 order for SIR in the poll-bound state, 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.”
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. It justified the SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, saying it added to the purity of the election by “weeding out ineligible persons” from the electoral rolls.
It said all major political parties were involved in the SIR exercise and deployed more than 1.5 lakh booth-level agents to reach out to eligible voters even as they opposed it in the top court.
In a rejoinder to the EC’s affidavit, ADR contended that the exclusion of Aadhaar and ration cards from the list of acceptable documents in SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar was “patently absurd” and that the Election Commission has given no valid reason for its decision.
Noting that Aadhaar was one of the documents accepted for obtaining a Permanent Residence Certificate, any OBC/SC/ST Certificate and passports, the NGO said the EC has given no valid reason to exclude Aadhaar and ration cards from the list of acceptable documents.
The electoral registration officers were vested with broad and unchecked discretion that could result in disenfranchisement of a significant segment of Bihar’s population, it alleged.
The EC 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 poll panel 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”.
More than 10 petitions, including those by the ‘Association for Democratic Reforms’ and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), have been filed in the top court against Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
Other petitioners against the EC’s move included RJD MP Manoj Jha and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress’ K C Venugopal, NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule, CPI leader D Raja, Samajwadi Party’s Harinder Singh Malik, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Arvind Sawant, JMM’s Sarfraz Ahmed and Dipankar Bhattacharya of CPI (ML).
Apprehending potential disenfranchisement of nearly three crore voters, the petitioners urged 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.
India