Ruling Tamil Nadu Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party secretary RS Bharathi on Monday (Nov 3, 2025) moved the Supreme Court against the second phase of the Special Intensive Review (SIR) exercise announced by the Election Commission of India in 12 states and union territories, saying the process is “nullified” and effectively annulled the national register over-recognized by the Constitution. Citizens (NRC).
“By placing the burden of proof of similar citizenship on the electorate, the SIR appears to be acting beyond its statutory purpose and is effectively functioning as a de facto National Register of Citizens (NRC). If the October 27 SIR order is not revoked, the exercise may arbitrarily and without due process disenfranchise thousands of voters disrupting the country’s free and fair elections, thereby eroding the basic fabric of democracy in a part of the state.” Constitution,” Mr. Bharathi filed a petition on behalf of the party, drafted by advocate Saushriya Havelia and handled by senior advocate NR Elango.
The petition, the first challenge in the apex court against the second phase of the SIR launched on October 28, highlighted the lack of due process as well as an unreasonably short timeline for the Tamil Nadu voter roll SIR, which was aimed at excluding voters.
“Unilaterally imposing such an unprecedented, resource-intensive and socially disruptive process on a state, without consultation or demonstrable administrative requirements, transgresses the federal structure of the Constitution, which is considered part of its basic structure. By circumventing statutory safeguards, the state in question has effectively reduced itself to a mere executive agency for centrally determined unilateral processes that pose a high risk to a large number of dissidents with a high risk to fideMK. highlighted.
The petition, filed through advocate Vivek Singh, said that a special summary review was already conducted in Tamil Nadu between October 2024 and January 6, 2025. This exercise dealt with issues such as migration, death and deletion of ineligible voters. The current electoral roll of Tamil Nadu was updated and published on 6 January 2025 and continuously updated since then.
Referring to how the Bihar SIR had excluded registered voters en masse and introduced a new and strict requirement for voters to prove citizenship, especially for those not on the electoral roll in 2003, Mr. Bharathi said the EC, through its SIR, was trying to replace the existing legal framework that already governs the preparation and revision of electoral rolls.
“The manner in which the SIR was mandated to be carried out is not to be found in either the Representation of the People Act (ROPA), 1950 or the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
In addition, Section 28(3) of ROPA requires all rules to be notified in the Official Gazette and laid before Parliament. No such notification was issued to the SIR and the same was not tabled in Parliament. Therefore, the SIR is without legal force and lacks legal basis,” the petition argued.
It noted that the orders even allow electoral registration officials to refer cases of “suspected foreign nationals” to an appropriate authority under the Citizenship Act of 1955 without due process. “The question whether a person is a foreigner is a question of fact and has to be determined by the Union Government under the Citizenship Act, 1955,” the petition said.
Mr. Bharathi said that neither ROPA nor the 1960 rules mentioned any “forms of enumeration” in the revision of electoral rolls. Besides, commonly available documents like ration cards, PAN cards and EPIC have been excluded in SIR.
The petition, which is the first to challenge the second phase of the SIR, said the exercise’s rigid and arbitrary document requirements do not meet the realities of disadvantaged communities that face chronic under-documentation.
“They disproportionately burden youth, migrants, women, economically weaker sections and
marginalized communities least likely to be able to provide such records within the unreasonably shortened prescribed timeline. This injustice is further compounded by the arbitrary exclusion of widely accepted government identification documents,” he noted.
Published – 03 Nov 2025 20:30 IST
