EARLIER TODAY, a bench comprising CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymayla Bagchi delivered the judgment upholding the validity of the Special Intensive Revision (‘SIR’) of the electoral rolls in Bihar.
“Before any representative government can count votes, it must first know whose votes may be counted. The story of democracy is therefore not only a story of voting, but also of identifying the persons entitled to participate in the choice of government,”wrote CJI Kant while opening the judgment.
Background
Bihar’s last SIR was conducted in 2003. Since then, electoral rolls were revised through summary revisions.
On June 24, last year, the Election Commission of India (‘ECI’) invoking its powers through Article 324 of the Constitution of India and Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (‘RP Act’), issued an order directing a SIR of the electoral rolls for every Assembly constituency in Bihar, ahead of the November 2025 elections.
The exercise was undertaken within a remarkably short span despite Bihar’s projected 2023 population of 12.7 crore, accounting for nearly 9.1 per cent of India’s total population. This had raised concerns about the scale, speed, and feasibility of such a revision.
For the 2025 SIR, the 2003 electoral roll was treated as probative evidence of eligibility, with persons listed therein presumed eligible unless rebutted. Those absent from the 2003 roll were required to submit Enumeration Forms by July 25, 2025.
When the draft electoral roll was published in August 2025, nearly 65 lakh electors were excluded for failure to submit the required forms. Following scrutiny and subsequent additions, 21.53 lakh eligible electors were added, while 3.66 lakh names were ultimately deleted.
The final electoral roll published in September 2025 recorded 7.42 crore electors, down from the initial 7.89 crore.
