Supreme Court Hears Challenge to Bihar Voter List Revision

• The Supreme Court is hearing petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Special Integrated Revision (SIR) of voter lists in Bihar.
• Petitioners, including senior advocate Kapil Sibal, argue that the process has major irregularities, citing instances of living voters being declared dead and calling it “mass exclusion.”
• The Election Commission, represented by senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, defended the process as a draft roll where minor errors can be corrected.

GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 12th Aug: The Supreme Court today heard a challenge to the constitutional validity of the voter list revision process in Bihar, known as the Special Integrated Revision (SIR), which has triggered a political showdown both inside and outside Parliament. A two-judge bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymala Bagchi is presiding over the case, where petitioners have alleged “major irregularities.”

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the petitioners, argued that a “major irregularity” exists in the process, citing a specific example where a dozen living voters in a single constituency were wrongly declared dead. Senior Advocate Gopal S. informed the court that a staggering 6.5 million names have been removed, labeling the process “mass exclusion.”

Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the Election Commission, defended the revision, stating that the list is merely a “draft roll” and minor mistakes are bound to happen in such a massive exercise. He contested the claim that deceased voters were still alive.

The bench, however, instructed the Election Commission to “be prepared” with all relevant data and figures, including the number of voters before the process began and the number of deceased voters, ahead of the next hearing. The court had previously refused to stay the process but warned it would intervene if it found evidence of a “mass exclusion.”

The issue has become a key political flashpoint. Official data from the Election Commission showed that 6.5 million names would be removed from the draft electoral roll, citing reasons such as voters being deceased (2.2 million), permanently relocated (3.6 million), or having duplicate entries (700,000). The Opposition, led by Rahul Gandhi, has accused the Election Commission of working in favor of the BJP, while the BJP has dismissed the allegations as “fabricated” and driven by a fear of losing elections. On Monday, Opposition MPs attempted to march to the Election Commission’s office in Delhi in protest.