The Supreme Court today delivered its verdict on the pleas challenging the SIR of Bihar Electoral Rolls | Today’s news
The Supreme Court is expected to deliver its verdict today on a series of petitions challenging the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
The pleas contended that the Election Commission has no powers under Article 326 of the Constitution, the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the rules made thereunder to conduct the SIR on such a larger scale.
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A panel headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant reserved its verdict on the reasons on 29 January.
The batch of petitions, filed in June last year following the ECI’s decision to conduct the SIR exercise in Bihar and other states, includes pleas filed by election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), civil rights group People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), political activist Yogendra Yadav, Trinamool Congress leader Mahua MP Mangopal, K. Jha among others.
The Election Commission launched the SIR exercise in Bihar last year, which followed in other states, following which a series of challenges were filed in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of the exercise.
SIR in Bihar was conducted in the first phase of the exercise.
The petitioners sought a direction from the apex court to set aside the ECI’s June 24, 2025 order on the SIR exercise.
On 28 July, the Supreme Court rejected the EC’s non-disclosure of the draft voter list on 1 August 2025 after the SIR exercise in Bihar.
The ECI defended the SIR exercise and said before the apex court that it was a legitimate process that was conducted in various states.
The final arguments took place in August
The Supreme Court started the final arguments in the case last year on August 12, when it stated that the inclusion or exclusion of names in the voter lists falls within the constitutional competence of the electoral commission.
The Electoral Office has published the names of 65,000 people who were removed from the draft voter lists published as part of the SIR exercise.
According to the SIR notification, voters who were not present in the 2002 or 2003 rolls had to prove their kinship with someone present in the then-old rolls.
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The EC defended the SIR exercise, arguing that Aadhaar and voter ID cards cannot be considered as irrefutable proof of citizenship.
The petitioners alleged that the revision of electoral rolls was an “NRC-like process” where the electoral body was verifying citizenship, a power vested in the central government.
The inclusion or exclusion of names in the voters’ lists falls within the constitutional competence of the electoral commission.
Appearing for the ADR, advocate Prashant Bhushan questioned the timeline for completing the exercise and the figures of 65 million voters who were declared dead or migrated or registered in other constituencies.
SIR Phase 3 announced
Earlier this month, the Election Commission announced Phase III of the Special Intensive Review (SIR) in 19 states and Union Territories. Phase 1 was conducted in Bihar between June and September 2025, ahead of the 2025 state assembly elections, while Phase II was conducted in nine states and three UTs between October 2025 and February 2026.
The survey authority stated that SIR of electoral rolls will cover the entire country in Phase III. However, this will not include Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
