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Supreme Court questions timing of ECI's electoral roll revision

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10th July, 2025 15:16 IST

The Supreme Court on 10 July, Thursday, questioned the Election Commission of India on the timing of the Special Intensive Revision drive in poll-bound Bihar, saying it went to the "root of democracy and power to vote", even as it rejected the argument that the poll panel did not have any powers to carry out such an exercise.

The ECI also justified the exercise and, when questioned on the selection of eligibility documents, said Aadhaar wasn't a "proof of citizenship".

A bench of justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi questioned senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the ECI, on the exclusion of Aadhaar cards in the SIR drive in Bihar. In response to his answer, they said the ECI had nothing to do with a person’s citizenship, as that is the domain of the ministry of home affairs.

Dwivedi responded while referring to Article 326 of the Constitution that every voter has to be an Indian citizen and "Aadhaar card is not proof of citizenship".

Justice Dhulia said, “If you are to check citizenship under SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, then you should have acted early; it is a bit late.”

The bench, in the meantime, rejected the submission of the petitioners’ counsel that the ECI did not have power to conduct any such exercise in Bihar, for it is mandated under the Constitution and the last such exercise happened in 2003, it said.

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While referring to the petitioners' contentions, the bench said the ECI had to answer three questions, as the SIR exercise in Bihar goes to "[the] root of democracy and power to vote".

The questions of the petitioners, including several political parties and their leaders, aside from civil society members and organisations, deal with the ECI's power to conduct such an exercise and its timing.

Dwivedi said that with the passage of time, electoral rolls need to be revised to look into inclusion or exclusion of voter names, with the SIR being the one exercise to do it.

He asked, in turn, that if the ECI did not have the power to revise the electoral rolls, then who did.

The poll panel, however, assured the top court that no one would be left out from the voters‘ list without an opportunity to be heard.

Earlier in the day, the top court commenced hearing of a batch of pleas challenging the Election Commission's decision to undertake a special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for one of the petitioners, said the revision of electoral rolls can be permitted under the Representation of People Act.

The entire SIR will cover around 7.9 crore citizens, he said, and even earlier voter IDs and Aadhaar cards are not being considered.

Over 10 petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court, including one from the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an NGO, said the lead petitioner.

RJD MP Manoj Jha and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress' K.C. 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(M-L) Liberation have also moved the top court, seeking direction for quashing the EC order.

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