Today, On 9th October, in the Bihar SIR Row ,Supreme Court said voters missing from the final electoral list can approach district authorities. Advocate Prashant Bhushan points out that people in the draft roll are suddenly excluded without receiving individual deletion orders.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court is examining a group of petitions challenging the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) June 24 order directing a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi is hearing the case.
The petitioners have expressed concerns that the SIR process allows for the arbitrary removal of voters without proper safeguards. They argue that this could result in the disenfranchisement of lakhs of citizens and threaten the integrity of free and fair elections.
During Today’s hearing on election roll discrepancies, the Election Commission’s counsel firmly rejected claims made by petitioners regarding a person who allegedly was deleted from the draft voter list.
Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi stated,
“Such a person was not found in the given addresses.”
The bench, led by Judge Surya Kant, highlighted the lack of evidence in the case,
“There is no proof that such a person even exists,”
Adv. Dwivedi further criticized the petitioner NGOs, arguing that they were “not verifying their own claims before filing affidavits in court.”
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the Rashtriya Janata Dal, mentioned that the affidavit regarding the missing person “was received from responsible quarters.”
He added that legal authorities could personally verify the address to confirm the claim.
Justice Joymalya Bagchi emphasized,
“There should be some responsibility when handing over documents to the court.” J
Justice Kant reiterated the difficulty in verifying the claim, noting that
“The person is not found at the address.”
The bench also clarified the proper procedure for those facing similar issues.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan said,
“People who were in the draft roll suddenly do not find themselves in the final list. People deleted from the final list have not been given individual orders of deletion.”
Responding to this, Justice Kant advised,
“Such people could approach the district legal service authorities.”
Earlier, On July 10, the Bench instructed the ECI to accept Aadhaar cards, ration cards, and EPICs as valid forms of identification for voter inclusion. Subsequently, it permitted the publication of the draft electoral rolls on August 1, while cautioning that it would step in if there were instances of “mass exclusion.”
Earlier, On September 8, the court had ordered the Election Commission to accept Aadhaar as proof of identity, adding it to the list of 11 other acceptable documents.
However, it clarified that Aadhaar could not be used to prove citizenship. On Monday, the bench issued a notice regarding the petition for modification and scheduled October 7 for final arguments on the legitimacy of the SIR process.
Earlier, On August 6, the Court learned that 6.5 million names were removed from the draft electoral roll published on August 1. The ECI assured the Court that no names would be removed without prior notice, an opportunity for a hearing, and a reasoned order from the appropriate authority.
The Election Commission of India (ECI), On 24 June 2025, started a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar before the Assembly elections. Under this process, voters were asked to provide updated documents, but many citizens did not have them.
Opposition parties and several NGOs criticised this move, saying it could deprive a large number of genuine voters of their right to vote. They approached the Supreme Court (SC), calling the ECI’s action arbitrary and against the Constitution.
Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, along with others such as RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, participated in a Voter Adhikar Yatra in Bihar to protest what they describe as widespread vote theft aimed at benefiting the BJP, allegedly in collusion with the Election Commission.
The Opposition contends that the Bihar SIR is a significant part of this scheme.
The Commission, On 1 August 2025, released the draft electoral roll, which showed a total of 7.24 crore registered voters. At the same time, around 65 lakh names were removed from the list.
Petitioners, including the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), requested the Supreme Court to order the ECI to make public the full list of voters whose names were dropped, along with the reasons for each deletion. They said that without such transparency, many citizens might lose their right to vote without being given a fair chance to object.
Case Title: ASSOCIATION FOR DEMOCRATIC REFORMS AND ORS. Versus ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA, W.P.(C) No. 640/2025 (and connected cases)
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