ON JULY 10, THE SUPREME COURT declined to halt the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (S.I.R) of Electoral Rolls in Bihar.
A Division Bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi heard the matter for over three hours and observed that it required further consideration.
The Bench issued a notice to the Election Commission of India, directing it to file a counter-affidavit by July 27, 2025. The petitioners were instructed to file a rejoinder affidavit, if any, by July 28.
The Bench recorded its prima facie view that it would be in the interest of justice for the Election Commission to ‘consider’ using Aadhaar, the Electors Photo Identity Card (‘EPIC’), and Ration Card for voter verification, in addition to the eleven documents already notified.
However, it remains unclear whether this observation constitutes a mandamus to the Commission or merely a suggestion for it to consider including these additional documents.
The Bench also permitted the Commission to proceed with the Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls in accordance with the law.
The Bench noted, “Since these cases will come up before the appropriate court before August 1, 2025, the scheduled date for the notification of Draft Electoral Rolls, there is no need to pass any order on the ad interim stay applications at this stage, especially as the petitioners are not pressing for a stay.”
The Bench was hearing a batch of petitions filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (‘ADR’), nine political parties including the Congress, All India Trinamool Congress (‘TMC’) Member of Parliament Mahua Moitra, psephologist Yogendra Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Manoj Jha, social activist Arshad Ajmal, and others.
A team of senior advocates and lawyers, including Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Shadan Farasat, Vrinda Grover, and Nizam Pasha, represented the petitioners. Senior advocates K.K. Venugopal, Rakesh Dwivedi, and Maninder Singh appeared for the Election Commission.
