Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK government on Monday filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the Election Commission’s plan to introduce a special intensive revision of electoral rolls in the state from November 4.
The Stalin-led MK DMK chief minister went to court a day before the EC’s proposal to launch SIR electoral rolls in 12 states, including Tamil Nadu and 3 union territories.
DMK organizing secretary senior RS Bharathi filed the application in court through party MP senior advocate NR Elang, a DMK statement said, adding that the matter is expected to be heard by the Supreme Court on November 6 or 7.
What the petition says
The regulation, a copy of which was made available to the media, challenges the constitutional validity of the SIR exercise and the DMK petitioner in its plea has asked the court to quash the Election Commission’s October 27, 2025 notification in this regard.
The ruling party argued that the notification should be quashed on the ground of violation of articles including Articles 14, 19, 21 (relating to fundamental rights including equality), 325 and 326 (relating to electoral roll and adult suffrage) of the Constitution as well as provisions of the Representation of the People Act96 of 1950 and the Registration Rules,16 Electors.
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According to the petition, a perusal of the directions prescribed in the orders dated 24.06.2025 and 27.10.2025 shows that they are full of arbitrariness, impropriety and illegality. “SIR is bound to cause confusion and disenfranchisement of a large number of voters as seen in the state of Bihar.
The SIR lacks any statutory basis and therefore goes beyond the scope of the 1960 rules. This is because new wholesale verification in an unreasonably shortened time frame was not contemplated in the rules. The EC has issued an impractical timetable for implementing SIR in Tamil Nadu, where state elections are due in early 2026.
“There are thousands of citizens whose names did not appear on the 2002/2005 electoral rolls who do not possess the documents required by the SIR order, there are many who may be able to procure these documents, but the short deadline given in the directive may prevent them from being able to supply them within the time limit.”
In the context of Tamil Nadu, there is a huge issue of voting rights for internal migrants and the Representation of the People Act provides a meaning for the term ‘ordinarily resident’ which is archaic and confusing and subject to gross misinterpretation and misuse. It does not deal with the three distinct categories (long-term/semi-permanent, short-term/seasonal and other categories including short-term migration) of current immigrants, and there is no justification for writing migrants falling into the categories as “short-term”.
The primary responsibility for carrying out any revision of the electoral rolls rests with the state government, which is required to provide personnel, logistics and infrastructure whenever the Election Commission so directs. The application of the unprecedented scale and intensity of the SIR represents an unplanned and extraordinary financial and administrative burden on the state apparatus and forces it to divert significant human and fiscal resources from the core functions of administration and social security.
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By imposing an extraordinary financial and administrative burden without justification or dialogue, the SIR is causing irreparable damage to the delicate federal balance between the Center and the states. The concept of co-equal constitutional units (i.e. Center and State) under cooperative federalism was recognized by the Supreme Court in Jindal Stainless Limited Vs. State of Haryana.
According to Section 169 of ROPA 1951, the Union Government has the power to make rules and it has to be notified in the official gazette and laid before Parliament. “It is therefore evident that the respondent (EC) does not and cannot assume the power to lay down rules with respect to the revisions of electoral rolls.”
The EC actually carries out the enumeration and finds out whether the conditions of citizenship have been fulfilled or not, for the purposes of the electoral rolls. However, the EC does not have the authority to assess the citizenship of individuals.
The intensive review carried out in 2002/2005 was fundamentally different from the current SIR exercise. Therefore, the same cannot be used as a precedent for SIR. A Special Summary Review (SSR) was conducted in Tamil Nadu between October 2024 and January 2025, looking into issues such as migration, death and deletion of ineligible voters.
The existing Tamil Nadu Electoral Roll was updated and published on 06.01.2025 as part of a special summary revision and has been continuously updated since then. “If the decision to exercise the unprecedented scope of the SIR is taken unilaterally and without prior consultation with the state government and/or any demonstrated administrative necessity and despite the recent completion of a special summary review in strict accordance with the statutory framework, it undermines the fragile and delicate edifice of trust and cooperation on which the centre-state relationship (in electoral administration) rests.”
The state’s ruling party approached the court a day after a multi-party meeting chaired by Chief Minister MK Stalin decided to approach the apex court in the Special Intensive Review (SIR) case.
Disclaimer: This story was published from the agency’s news feed without editing the text.
