The Bombay High Court refused to delete names from the Maharashtra electoral roll

Exterior view of Bombay High Court. File | Photo credit: The Hindu

The Bombay High Court on Monday (Oct 5, 2026) refused to issue orders to stay deletion of names from the electoral roll in Maharashtra during the ongoing special intensive review (SIR) of electoral rolls, saying it would follow the Supreme Court’s directive.

The court heard a proposal that demanded transparency of the methodology used in the SIR and its legal basis. While she said she was not trying to stop SIR, she called for safeguards against the exclusion of eligible voters. It also said that the Election Commission (EC) can assess election-related matters but cannot determine citizenship.

The petition also demanded the restoration of deleted names in the voter list, arguing that while the EC guidelines for Maharashtra did not allow the collection of documents during the census, booth-level officials asked people for the documents when they received the census forms.

The matter was heard by a division bench of Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Advait Sethna. The court was told that the Supreme Court had in November 2025 barred all high courts from hearing petitions challenging the validity of the SIR or aspects of the process. The court said that the Supreme Court had already heard challenges to the SIR and that parallel litigation would serve no purpose.

The petitioner’s lawyer Prakash Ambedkar asked the court to order that the authorities not remove the names from the electoral roll at this stage. The judges rejected the request. The court adjourned the proceedings for four weeks.

Published – 5 Oct 2026 23:17 IST