Bihar: Two more activists move the Supreme Court against ECI’s SIR of electoral rolls

The Supreme Court on 9 July, Wednesday, agreed to hear the plea of two social activists challenging the decision of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to undertake the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.

A bench of justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi agreed to take up the plea on 10 July, along with other pending petitions after advocate Vrinda Grover mentioned for urgent listing.

Grover said the plea file by Arshad Ajmal and Rupesh Kumar challenges the ECI’s 24 June decision to conduct the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state and urged for listing it with other matters.

The activists have contended that the exercise undermines the principles of free and fair elections and representative democracy, both integral features of the Constitution's basic structure by introducing arbitrary, unreasonable and disproportionate documentation requirements related to birth, residence and citizenship.

They submitted that the process disproportionately burdens the poor, migrants, women and marginalised groups, for whom the vote remains a critical lever of political accountability.

The plea said that such exclusionary measures lack legal basis and risk disenfranchising large sections of the electorate and sought quashing of the ongoing SIR in Bihar as the poll panel’s order of 24 June 2025 is "unconstitutional".

On 7 July, the top court agreed to hear on July 10 a batch of petitions challenging the decision of the EC to undertake special intensive revision of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.

Several fresh pleas including a joint petition by opposition parties leaders of Congress, NCP (Sharad Pawar), Shiv Sena (UBT), Samajwadi Party, JMM, CPI and CPI (ML) were filed in the apex court against the poll panel's decision to conduct the SIR before Bihar went to polls.

Beside separate pleas from RJD MP Manoj Jha and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, the Congress’ K.C. Venugopal, Supriya Sule from the Sharad Pawar NCP faction, D. Raja from the Communist Party of India, Harinder Singh Malik from the Samajwadi Party, Arvind Sawant from the Shiv Sena (UBT), Sarfraz Ahmed from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Dipankar Bhattacharya of the CPI(M-L) Liberation have jointly moved the top court.

All these leaders have challenged the Election Commission's order directing an SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar and sought direction for its quashing.

Several other civil society organisations such as the PUCL, the NGO Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and activists such as Yogendra Yadav have also moved the top court against the EC order.