Listing alongside similar matters on Thursday is what counsel sought for the writ petition by AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi against the way the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is being conducted. The Court has recorded no view on the petition and no response from the Election Commission is yet on record.
New Delhi: Asking that it be heard with other SIR matters, counsel for AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi mentioned his Supreme Court writ petition, which challenges the manner in which the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is being conducted, before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Wednesday, 14 October 2026 [Writ petition by Asaduddin Owaisi on the conduct of the SIR].
Also on the Bench was Justice Joymalya Bagchi. Advocate Nizam Pasha mentioned the petition, referred to as Item 802, and wanted it tagged with similar matters that are scheduled to come up on Thursday, 15 October.
Other SIR matters before the same Bench
Several SIR matters are already before this Bench. A writ petition by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and ten other Opposition leaders seeks a halt to the exercise and challenges what they describe as unilateral decisions by the Commission, though that petition was still being corrected for defects when last reported. Earlier on 14 October, Advocate Prashant Bhushan also mentioned an urgent application in the Delhi SIR matter against the Commission’s requirement that deleted voters file Form 6 with a first-time voter declaration, and the Bench advanced the hearing of that application to 28 October.
A batch of related petitions has been slated for 15 October before a Bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Bagchi and V Mohana, which agreed to club them after the Centre sought more time to respond.
The exchange at the mentioning
Counsel told the Court that the petition concerns the manner in which the SIR exercise is being carried out, and pointed out that similar matters were coming up the next day. The CJI indicated that the Court would see which matters were involved. No formal listing order has been reported.
Grounds and reliefs: not yet known
The material available at the time of mentioning does not set out the specific grounds or the reliefs sought in the petition, and the petition number and the States covered have not been stated. The Court has expressed no view on the merits of the challenge, and the Election Commission of India has not yet responded.
How the SIR reached the Supreme Court
The SIR is an intensive, house-to-house verification of the electoral rolls by the Election Commission of India (ECI), unlike the routine annual summary revision. The Commission ordered it first in Bihar on 24 June 2025, about four months before that State’s Assembly election, and challenges followed quickly: petitions by the Association for Democratic Reforms, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties and several Opposition politicians were filed before the Supreme Court in early July 2025. At the first hearing, on 10 July 2025, the Court questioned whether the citizenship documents listed for the exercise were widely available and pressed the Commission to consider Aadhaar and EPIC cards.
A second phase was announced by the Commission on 27 October 2025, covering a dozen States and Union Territories, including Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, with Assam left out pending the Supreme Court-monitored NRC exercise. The third phase, covering 16 States and three Union Territories, followed on 14 May 2026. Each phase has produced its own set of challenges in the Supreme Court and in High Courts, over the documents demanded, the pace of verification and the deletion of names from draft rolls.
What to watch
A political party’s challenge now joins a growing set of SIR cases before the Supreme Court, which is being listed together so that the Bench can hear overlapping questions on the conduct of the exercise at one time. How the Court groups the matters, and whether it keeps the Delhi Form 6 application on its own track, will indicate how it intends to approach the common questions as the exercise moves through its phases.
Case Details: Writ petition by Asaduddin Owaisi on the conduct of the SIR (case title and petition number not stated); Supreme Court of India; Bench: CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi; mentioned on 14 October 2026.
Appearances: Advocate Nizam Pasha for the petitioner.