The Supreme Court on Tuesday began hearing a series of petitions challenging the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) decision to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi heard senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for RJD MP Manoj Jha, who alleged glaring errors in the revision process. “In one constituency, the poll panel claimed 12 people were dead, but they were found alive; in another, living persons were declared dead,” Sibal submitted.
Representing the Election Commission, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi admitted that an exercise of this scale was “bound to have some defects here and there” but maintained that errors could be rectified as the current list was only a draft roll.
The bench directed the poll panel to be prepared with detailed statistics, including the number of voters before the SIR began, the number of reported deaths before and after the revision, and other relevant data.
The controversy traces back to July 29, when the apex court noted that while the Election Commission is a constitutional authority expected to act in accordance with law, it would intervene “immediately” if there were signs of “mass exclusion” from the rolls.
The draft roll was published on August 1, with the final version scheduled for release on September 30. Opposition parties allege the process could deprive crores of eligible voters of their franchise.
Earlier, on July 10, the court allowed the SIR to continue but asked the ECI to accept Aadhaar, voter ID, and ration cards as valid documents for verification. In its affidavit, the Commission defended the revision as essential to “weeding out ineligible persons” and ensuring the “purity” of elections.
The petitioners include several political leaders — Manoj Jha (RJD), Mahua Moitra (Trinamool Congress), K C Venugopal (Congress), Supriya Sule (NCP–Sharad Pawar), D Raja (CPI), Harinder Singh Malik (Samajwadi Party), Arvind Sawant (Shiv Sena–Uddhav Thackeray), Sarfraz Ahmed (JMM), and Dipankar Bhattacharya (CPI–ML) — as well as civil society groups such as PUCL, the Association for Democratic Reforms, and activists including Yogendra Yadav.
They have jointly challenged the EC’s June 24 order authorising the special revision, alleging it threatens to disenfranchise large sections of the electorate in Bihar.
