When the Supreme Court was approached over the deletion of more than 65 lakh names from draft electoral rolls ahead of the 2025 Bihar assembly elections, the controversy was never merely about numbers.
The petitioners—led by the Association for Democratic Reforms and other civil society organisations—presented the issue as one of constitutional urgency. They alleged that the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was conducted through an unreasonably compressed timeline, coupled with onerous and inconsistently applied documentation requirements that disproportionately affected Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, migrant workers and other vulnerable groups.
“The process of Special Intensive Revision, carried out within an unreasonably compressed timeline and with onerous documentation requirements, has resulted in the arbitrary exclusion of lakhs of voters, particularly from marginalised communities, thereby violating the principles of due process and undermining the constitutional guarantee of free and fair elections,” the petitioners argued.
In May 2026, however, a two-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, upheld the legality of the exercise. The Court ruled that the SIR was constitutionally valid, proportionate and well within the Election Commission’s authority under Article 324 of the Constitution and Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
“The Election Commission of India is well within its constitutional mandate under Article 324 to undertake a Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, and such an exercise, aimed at ensuring accuracy and purity of the rolls, advances the constitutional objective of free and fair elections,” the bench observed.
Yet, the judgment’s significance extends beyond its formal validation of the SIR. It opens a larger constitutional conversation—one that touches the foundations of democratic participation, citizenship and the relationship between the State and its citizens.
POWER WITHOUT CLEAR LIMITS
The apex court anchored its ruling in Article 324, which grants the Election Commission the power of “superintendence, direction and control” over elections, alongside statutory authority under the Representation of the People Act.
Accepting the Commission’s justification—ranging from demographic shifts driven by migration and urbanisation to the fact that decades had elapsed since the last intensive revision—the Court concluded that the exercise was both necessary and lawful.
What the judgment does not do, however, is define clear constitutional limits for invoking such an exercise.
By treating the SIR primarily as an administrative matter rather than as an extraordinary intervention requiring heightened safeguards, the ruling leaves unanswered a critical question: can electoral rolls be subjected to sweeping revisions at any time, including close to elections, without stricter constitutional scrutiny?
ELECTORAL INTEGRITY VERSUS ELECTORAL INCLUSION
The judgment reiterates a well-established constitutional principle: free and fair elections form part of the Constitution’s basic structure.
In doing so, it reinforces the Election Commission’s role as guardian of electoral integrity. Yet, its reasoning appears to privilege one aspect of that integrity—the purity of electoral rolls—over another equally vital democratic value: inclusion.
Democracy derives legitimacy not only from accurate voter lists, but from the broadest possible participation of citizens. When efforts to eliminate ineligible entries result in large-scale exclusions, especially among already disadvantaged communities, concerns arise under Article 14’s guarantee of equality and Article 326’s promise of universal adult suffrage.
The central question is, therefore, not whether electoral rolls should be accurate—they unquestionably must be. The question is whether accuracy achieved through exclusion can still be regarded as democratic fairness.
CITIZENSHIP THROUGH PROCEDURE
Perhaps the most consequential aspect of the ruling concerns citizenship.
The apex court held that while the Election Commission cannot conclusively determine citizenship, it may examine citizenship-related questions for the limited purpose of including or excluding names from electoral rolls.
Legally, this distinction preserves the domain of the Citizenship Act, 1955. Constitutionally, however, it creates a paradox.
Voting rights in India are reserved for citizens. Exclusion from electoral rolls on grounds linked to identity or documentation inevitably carries the implication of questionable citizenship. Even absent a formal declaration, such exclusion can operate as a practical denial of civic belonging.
This raises a profound constitutional dilemma: can an administrative process indirectly perform what the law reserves for a separate legal framework? If citizenship is a legal status, can it be effectively diluted through administrative procedure?
WHO CONSTITUTES THE NATION?
At its core, the judgment engages a fundamental democratic principle: the nation is constituted by its people. The legitimacy of the State flows not from administrative precision alone, but from the participation and consent of citizens.
Critics argue that by upholding an exercise that resulted in the exclusion of lakhs of voters without insisting on rigorous procedural safeguards, the Court risks shifting the constitutional balance from “We, the People” to “We, the Verified”.
This concern is not merely rhetorical. It speaks directly to the idea of popular sovereignty that underpins the Constitution. If democratic participation can be curtailed through procedural mechanisms that disproportionately affect vulnerable populations, the constitutional promise of equal citizenship is weakened.
THE UNANSWERED QUESTION OF DUE PROCESS
At the heart of the petitioners’ challenge was the principle of due process. They pointed to:
Unreasonably short timelines for verification.
Inconsistent and often burdensome documentation requirements.
Administrative opacity and the absence of uniform standards.
Reports emerging from Bihar and West Bengal suggested that these concerns were not isolated incidents, but reflected broader implementation challenges.
Yet, the apex court ultimately accepted the Election Commission’s assurances and rationale without undertaking a deeper examination of how the process functioned on the ground.
That judicial deference raises an important institutional question: when fundamental democratic rights are implicated, is trust in institutions sufficient, or must constitutional courts independently verify how power has been exercised?
THE COST OF FINALITY
The timing of the SIR, conducted close to elections, was another major point of contention.
By refusing to permit those excluded from the revised rolls to vote, the apex court prioritised electoral certainty and administrative finality. While that approach may be defensible from the standpoint of election management, it carries a significant democratic cost.
The burden of administrative error ultimately falls on citizens, transforming procedural deficiencies into political disenfranchisement.
In a country where access to documentation remains uneven and bureaucratic capacity varies widely, such rigidity risks reinforcing existing inequalities.
INSTITUTIONAL BOUNDARIES AND CONSTITUTIONAL PROPRIETY
The Constitution carefully distributes powers among institutions. Citizenship is governed through a specific legal framework. Electoral administration belongs to the Election Commission.
The SIR judgment, critics contend, blurs these boundaries. By permitting the Election Commission to engage with questions closely linked to citizenship—even in a limited electoral context—the Court creates a zone of constitutional overlap that could generate future ambiguities.
The concern is not immediate institutional overreach. Rather, it is the gradual normalisation of administrative exclusion as a substitute for formal legal determination.
When institutions begin operating at the edges of their constitutional mandates, a larger question emerges: who safeguards the boundaries themselves?
BEYOND LEGAL VALIDITY
The Supreme Court’s ruling undoubtedly strengthens the Election Commission’s authority and underscores the importance of maintaining accurate electoral rolls. But it also leaves unresolved a series of foundational constitutional questions.
Does the pursuit of electoral integrity justify large-scale exclusion without stringent procedural safeguards? Can administrative processes indirectly shape the meaning of citizenship? And does this approach ultimately strengthen or strain India’s democratic fabric?
The answers will determine how this judgment is remembered—not merely as a validation of administrative power, but as a constitutional moment that tested the delicate balance between the State and its citizens.
For in a democracy, the right to vote is more than a procedural entitlement. It is the clearest expression of political belonging. Any process that places that belonging in doubt must be assessed not only for its legality, but also for its constitutional morality.
—The writer is a New Delhi-based journalist, lawyer and trained mediator
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