Upending ‘universal adult franchise’, ECI style

On 14 August, after hearing the SIR petitions over three days, the Supreme Court bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi directed the Election Commission of India to upload the full district-wise list of 65.2 lakh names deleted from the draft electoral rolls of Bihar, published on 1 August.

The ECI has also been asked to assign reasons for these deletions in each case. ‘Dead’, ‘untraceable’, ‘permanently migrated’ and ‘duplicate’ were the reasons the ECI had cited for these deletions, but since there wasn’t an accessible full list of deleted names with reasons, there was no way of verifying if and how many of these deletions were in error.

In an earlier hearing on 29 July, the judges had also reportedly said that if illegality, such as wrongful removal from the voter list, was proven, it could lead to the nullification of the SIR exercise.

It took a spirited bunch of petitioners — among them political activist and commentator Yogendra Yadav, NGOs Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), and a bunch of leaders from Opposition parties — to convince the court that the ECI needed to come clean on the SIR exercise.

Yadav appeared in person and made a written submission too. He argued that the SIR exercise was loaded against the poor, the minorities, the marginalised, the illiterate and landless, migrants and women, effectively disenfranchising millions in the state.

The ECI, he pointed out, had not found a single new voter to add in this entire ‘revision’ exercise — against 65-plus lakh deletions — ignoring the moral imperative to ensure that no legitimate voter is left behind. In one fell swoop, the exercise has crashed the state’s elector-to-adult population ratio to 88 per cent from 97 per cent earlier and 99 per cent nationwide.

Edited excerpts from the written submission:

The SIR threatens to permanently and irrevocably alter the architecture of ‘universal adult franchise’ embedded in our Constitution, the laws and rules governing elections. The first phase of this exercise has already resulted in the largest mass deletion of names from the Electoral Roll recorded in the history of India, without adding a single name.

With approximately 94 lakh eligible adults already absent from the draft electoral rolls in Bihar, the SIR has opened the floodgates for the largest disenfranchisement exercise in the global history of democracy. If allowed to continue, the SIR is designed to result in further mass deletions in Bihar. And, if allowed at the national level, as envisaged in the SIR order, this exercise is bound to erode the universal character of adult franchise achieved in the last 75 years.

****

[The SIR] fails to follow the established protocols and rules for determination of dead, duplicate and permanently shifted names. As per the Manual on Electoral Rolls, in a de novo preparation of Electoral Rolls, which the SIR claims to be, it is the responsibility of the Booth Level Workers to make home visits and note down ‘all particulars of eligible persons staying in the house in an electoral card. A copy of the card is to be handed over to the head of the household.’ (Sec. 9.3.1, Page 49, Manual on Electoral Rolls, 2023).

Such an exercise has hitherto not required each elector to fill and submit enumeration forms with photograph herself/ himself nor has there been any requirement of submission of any eligibility document from those who are already on the electoral rolls. Nor do the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, or the Manual on Election Law (2024) mention any power of the Election Commission to demand eligibility documents from existing voters at the preparation of Draft or Final Rolls.

Nor, within the BLO Training Manual has the BLO any power to determine which Elector has been permanently migrated, unless the Elector herself clearly indicates that she has no intention to return to the place where she has been enrolled. (Page 20, Training Module for Booth Level Officers, 2011)

****

[The SIR] extinguishes the legal right to receive notice and personal hearing as well as legal remedy by way of first and second appeal for these 65.2 lakh electors who have been left out of the draft roll, even if they are not deceased, not registered in more than one location, not permanently migrated or untraceable, since the SIR notification does not contemplate any recourse for such a person during the Claims and Objections period.

The wrongfully excluded among these 65.2 lakh voters will now be compelled to reapply as fresh electors under Form 6 of the Registration of Electors Rules, which is to be submitted along with documentary proof.

****

There are three internationally accepted criteria for assessing the quality of electoral rolls: completeness, accuracy and equity. Completeness is about not leaving anyone behind and ensuring that every person who is entitled figures on the electoral rolls. Accuracy is about eliminating false, erroneous or missing entries. Equity is about fair representation of all social groups in proportion to their share of eligible population. From the evidence available so far, the SIR has failed the quality test on all these three scores.

****

The SIR shifts our electoral system from ‘state-initiated enrolment’ to ‘self-initiated enrolment’, which is bound to leave out a higher proportion of the poor, less educated and disadvantaged social groups from the electoral rolls. Can such a major reversal in the existing system of adult franchise be brought about through an order of the ECI, without any change in the rules and laws governing elections?

While India boasts 99 per cent coverage of adult population as voters, Bihar’s ratio of elector-to-adult population was 97 per cent before the SIR was initiated. The exercise has now brought down the ratio to 88 per cent in just a month.

In July 2025, the adult population of Bihar was projected at 8.18 crore whereas the electoral rolls showed 7.89 crore registered voters. A revision of the electoral roll should have led to a net addition of 29 lakh voters to cover the gap.

But the draft electoral rolls released on 1 August 2025 records 7.24 crore registered voters — 94 lakh short of the state’s adult population. This is contrary to the SIR’s stated objective, that ‘no eligible citizen is left out while no ineligible person is included.’ Even more remarkably, as per the data released by the EC, the entire exercise has not led to the addition of a single name to the electoral rolls in Bihar.

****

The available information raises serious concerns about exclusion of women and migrant workers. There is a serious apprehension that the scope of arbitrariness built into this exercise may be used for selective deletion of voters from minority and other vulnerable social communities.

All voters on the Bihar electoral rolls, including those who have not been given or have not submitted an enumeration slip, are entitled to the same presumption of citizenship and the corresponding protection from arbitrary deletion. The mass, automatic deletion of existing voters from the electoral rolls simply because they could not submit the enumeration form by 25 July 2025 without giving them a reasonable opportunity of being heard is violative of Article 10 of the Constitution (which recognises the continuance of citizenship).

****

The new Bihar assembly must be formed on/ before 22 November 2025. This means that the last date of notification of elections, 30 September, is also the date of publication of the Final SIR Electoral Roll.

This is grossly unfair as it is certain that the individuals deleted from the Draft Rolls who can recover their voting right on the first or second appeal have no way to get back on the electoral rolls in time for the Vidhan Sabha election and will [thus] be deprived of their franchise.