Supreme Court SIR order a beacon of hope: Congress

In a move that has set the political pot simmering, the Supreme Court on Thursday handed the Election Commission of India (ECI) a politely phrased but unmistakable rap on the knuckles.

The country’s top court has ordered the poll body to cough up the details of a jaw-dropping 65 lakh voters who mysteriously vanished from Bihar’s draft electoral roll. Oh, and while they’re at it, they’ll also need to explain exactly why each name got the axe. Transparency, after all, isn’t just a nice word for speeches — it’s a constitutional requirement.

The Congress — which brought the nation into the 'vote chori (theft)' movement on 7 August with the landmark press conference by Rahul Gandhi in Bengaluru — immediately hailed the verdict as a “beacon of hope”, declaring that the court had upheld the Constitution in a “categorical, convincing, and courageous” manner. In case you missed the subtext, that’s political-speak for 'take that, Modi & Co'.

According to Congress, this ruling marks “a long struggle to rescue the Republic” from the “machinations” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his “drumbeaters”. In other words, this isn’t just about voter lists — it’s about democracy itself, and apparently the fight is on.

The directive stems from a case over Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of its electoral roll, a bureaucratic-sounding process that suddenly became high drama when 65 lakh voters found themselves ghosted by the system. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi wasn’t impressed by the opacity and told the ECI to make the deletions public, along with the reasons for each removal.

At the previous hearing on 10 August, the ECI had submitted that no "statutory framework" required it to prepare or share any separate list of names of people not included in the draft electoral rolls, or publish the reasons for non-inclusion of anyone in the draft rolls for any reason.

Congress MP and general-secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh took to X to repeat his praise for the ruling. “It is a long struggle to rescue our Republic from the machinations of the PM and his drumbeaters. But today’s verdict of the Supreme Court on the Bihar SIR issue is a beacon of hope. It is a gigantic first step,” Ramesh posted.

The court wasn’t done at just ordering disclosure. It also told the Election Commission to give the matter wide publicity — not just in English-language newspapers that politicians (pretend to) read, but also in vernacular dailies, TV, and radio. The goal: make sure ordinary voters actually know if they’ve been struck off the list and, crucially, how to fight back.

Speaking of which, the bench reminded the public that if their names have been unfairly deleted, they can march into the local poll office — Aadhaar card in hand — and demand reinstatement. Because apparently, in 2025, you still have to prove you exist to keep your right to vote.

For now, the ruling is being celebrated by the Opposition as a major check on the ECI’s evidently less-than-transparent processes. Whether this “gigantic first step” turns into an actual march toward electoral fairness remains to be seen. But one thing’s certain — in the battle between democracy and deletion, the Supreme Court has just thrown in a very large wrench.