The Supreme Court of India is poised to deliver a significant ruling on petitions challenging the validity of the special intensive revision (SIR) conducted by the Election Commission of India.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi had reserved judgment after hearing arguments over several dates spread across nearly three months.
The batch of petitions, led by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), challenge both the legality and operational framework of the SIR exercise initiated by the poll panel in Bihar and later extended to several other states and Union territories.
The petitioners have argued that the timing, manner, and scale of the exercise resulted in large-scale disenfranchisement and transformed the Election Commission into a de facto citizenship verification authority without statutory backing.
The judgment assumes political and constitutional significance because assembly elections in several states, including West Bengal, have already been conducted on the basis of revised electoral rolls prepared following the SIR exercise.
The challenge before the apex court centres on whether the Election Commission possesses the authority under Article 326 of the Constitution, Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 to undertake what the petitioners described as a de novo reconstruction of electoral rolls.
The SIR process, first initiated in Bihar through a June 24, 2025 notification, required voters not traceable to the 2002 or 2003 electoral rolls to furnish documentary proof linking them to persons present in those legacy rolls.
The petitioners contended that the process effectively reversed the settled legal presumption recognised in Lal Babu Hussein Vs Electoral Registration Officer (1995), under which a person whose name already exists on the electoral roll is presumed to be an Indian citizen unless proven otherwise by the state.
The verdict expected on Wednesday is likely to determine not only the legality of the SIR exercise but also larger constitutional questions concerning the nature of the right to vote, the extent of the Election Commission’s powers under Article 324 and Article 326, and the procedural safeguards required before deleting citizens from electoral rolls.
