The Supreme Court will hear on July 10, a batch of petitions challenging the Election Commission of India’s decision to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
The matter was mentioned on Monday before the partial working days Bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Joymalya Bagchi by Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Gopal Sankaranarayanan and Shadan Farasat.
The lawyers sought urgent hearing of the petition on the grounds that voters who failed to submit the forms with the specified documents would face the harsh consequence of being deleted from the electoral roll, even if they have voted in elections for the last 20 years.
Appearing for RJD, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal said that out of the eight crore electorate, four crore had to do the enumeration, which was an impossible task.
Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan said the Commission was not accepting the Aadhaar card or voter card. The timeline was so strict. By July 25, if the voters were not able to provide the required documents, they would be out.
The timeline did not have sanctity as elections have not been notified as yet, noted the Bench and listed the matter for hearing on July 10.
The petitioners include Member of Parliament Mahua Moitra, NGO Association for Democratic Reforms and politician Yogendra Yadav.
The petition filed by India Trinamool Congress leader and MP Mahua Moitra sought quashing of the Election Commission of India’s June 24 notification, which called for SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar.
The petition sought quashing of the ECI notification on the grounds that it violated Articles 14, 19(1)(a), 21, 325, 326 of the Constitution, along with provisions of the Representation of People Act, 1950 and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
It further prayed for directions to the ECI not to issue similar orders for SIR of electoral rolls in other states of the country since it could lead to large-scale disenfranchisement of eligible voters and undermine the democracy as well as conduct of free & fair elections in the country.
The plea noted that for the very first time in the country, the Commission was conducting such an exercise, wherein the electors whose names were already there in electoral rolls and who had already voted multiple times, were being asked to prove their eligibility.
The ECI notification required the inclusion or retention of a voter’s name in the electoral roll upon production of citizenship documents, including proof of citizenship of either or both the parents, failing which the voter was at risk of exclusion.
This requirement was ultra vires Article 326 and introduced extraneous qualifications not contemplated by the Constitution or the RP Act 1950, it added.
The petitioner argued that the ECI order arbitrarily excluded the commonly accepted identity documents such as Aadhaar and ration cards from the list of accepted documents, putting huge burden on the voters who were at a huge risk of getting disenfranchised.
Citing reports from Bihar, she said that lakhs of residents across rural and marginalised areas in Bihar were at imminent risk of disenfranchisement due to these stringent and unreasonable requirements.
As per the plea, the order disproportionately affected the economically & socially vulnerable communities and resembled the structure and consequences of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which had been widely critiqued.
Citing Paragraph 13 of the notification, the petitioner said it expressly mandated that the failure to submit fresh enumeration forms by July 25, 2025 would result in exclusion from the draft roll, without adequate procedural protection.
It further called as absurd, the requirement for the voters to prove their eligibility through a set of documents. On the basis of their existing eligibility, most existing voters have already exercised their franchise multiple times in state as well as general elections, it added.
The plea submitted that the unreasonable timeline effectively foreclosed the possibility of compliance for those who may otherwise be able to procure the necessary documents.
The petitioner revealed that she had information that the said exercise was stated to be replicated in West Bengal from August 2025, for which instructions have already been given to EROs.
Moitra, MP from Krishnanagar constituency in West Bengal, has become the third petitioner to challenge the ECI order. Earlier,
NGO for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and psephologist Yogendra Yadav moved the Apex Court against the notification.
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