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 the Assembly elections to be held in October-November this year.More than 10 petitions, including those by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), have been filed in the top court against the SIR. Apprehending potential disenfranchisement of nearly three crore voters, the petitioners urged the top court to set aside the order as being “arbitrary and violative” of the Constitution and the Representation of People’s Act.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 and ration card as documents for the SIR. However, in its affidavit filed in response to PILs challenging its June 24 order for the SIR, the EC said Aadhaar, voter I-card and ration card couldn’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 these were based on newspaper articles and were aimed at drumming up the narrative of exclusion. It justified the SIR 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, NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) contended that the exclusion of Aadhaar and ration cards from the list of acceptable documents was “patently absurd” and that the Election Commission had 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 had 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 the 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 and objections period also”. It has urged people to “beware of statements being made by a few persons, who without reading the SIR order dated June 24…. are attempting to confuse the public with their incorrect and misleading statements”.Other petitioners against the EC’s move included RJD MP Manoj Jha and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra; Congress’ KC 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 the CPI (ML).
Ineligible voters vs leaving out lakhs: SC to take up pleas against Bihar SIR today
