ASSURING OF ITS INTERVENTION if there was any mass exclusion of voters from Bihar electoral rolls, as being apprehended, the Supreme Court today allotted two days - August 12 and 13 – for hearing a batch of petitions challenging the Election Commission of India’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (‘SIR’) of the electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the State Assembly elections due in October–November 2025.
“If there is any mass exclusion, then the court will step in,” said Justice Surya Kant, heading a bench also comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi as it was told that compared to the electoral rolls prepared earlier this year, nearly 65 lakh voters are likely to be axed from the rolls under preparation in the wake of SIR.
“We are overviewing the thing as a judicial authority. If there is mass exclusion, we will immediately step in,” the bench said assuring the petitioners that it is still seized of the matter. In the same breadth, the court also said that the poll panel was a constitutional institution and they expected it to act as per the law.
Leaving nothing to doubt about its expectation of fairness from the poll panel, Justice Kant said, “There's a constitutional institution. We would deem that their action will be in accordance with law...we are here, we will hear the matter.”
Appearing for Association for Democratic Reforms, a non-governmental organisation, advocate Prashant Bhushan told the bench about the poll panel’s statement that 65 lakh persons have not submitted the enumeration forms during the SIR process as they are either dead or have permanently shifted elsewhere.
When Bhushan said that these persons will have to apply afresh for inclusion in the list, the bench assured, “We are here, we will hear you.”
Dispelling any misgivings on the integrity of the electoral rolls emerging from the SIR exercise, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi appearing for the poll panel said that the procedure allows the filing of objections to the draft list.
“Mass inclusion, not mass exclusion”
The Supreme Court on Monday, July 28, had told the Election Commission to adopt a voter verification approach based on “mass inclusion, not mass exclusion,” as it questioned the Commission’s refusal to accept Aadhaar and Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC – voter ID card) as valid proof of identity under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.
Unimpressed by the poll panel’s argument that Aadhaar and EPIC cards are not proof of citizenship and can be forged, the court had pointed out yesterday that “10 out of 11 documents already accepted by the Commission can be equally fake.” The Court had said that forgery is always a possibility, but that cannot be a reason to summarily discard widely held documents like Aadhaar or voter ID cards.
The June 24 decision of the Election Commission has come under fire both for its timing – just ahead of the Bihar assembly elections and the exercise being violative of the Articles 14, 19, 21, 325, and 326 of the Constitution and contravenes the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and Rule 21A of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
This move has drawn sharp criticism from civil society, with petitioners—including Association for Democratic Reforms (‘ADR’), People’s Union for Civil Liberties (‘PUCL’), TMC MP Mahua Moitra, RJD MP Manoj Jha, and activist Yogendra Yadav—arguing that the exercise would lead to the disfranchisement of rural and marginal sections of the society.
The Election Commission has resisted the Supreme Court's suggestion to consider including Aadhaar or voter ID and ration cards as identity proof.
Defending the exercise, the Election Commission has asserted that the SIR exercise is constitutionally backed by Article 324, which gives it plenary powers over electoral roll preparation and the documents required under SIR mirror the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955—particularly Section 3 relating to birth-based citizenship.
It has further said that the citizens not submitting forms by July 25 can still file claims up to September 1 to be included in the final roll.
Insisting that the exercise is inclusive and not exclusive, the poll panel has said that the political parties have been provided lists of those whose forms are pending, and have been roped in to help trace and include them.
