New Delhi: The Supreme Court has made it clear that Bihar’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll can be cancelled if it is proven to be illegal or in violation of rules, even if the process has already been completed. The observation came while the Court was hearing multiple petitions challenging the revision exercise.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing RJD MP Manoj Jha, informed the bench that nearly 6.5 million voters’ names had been removed from the draft list published on August 1 — a move he termed illegal. He argued that a majority of Bihar’s residents do not possess the specific documents that the Election Commission of India (ECI) has made mandatory for voter verification.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan also criticised the Commission, noting that the list of 6.5 million deleted names had not been made public, nor was there any explanation as to who was removed on grounds of death or migration. He added that until August 4, the draft roll was searchable online, but public access was later blocked. “Now they are saying that people should approach booth-level agents of political parties for information. Why should an ordinary citizen have to go to a political party to verify names?” he asked.
In an unusual move, political activist and analyst Yogendra Yadav presented two individuals in court who had been marked as “dead” in the draft voter list but were in fact alive. Calling this the largest disenfranchisement in world history, Yadav claimed the number of deleted voters could exceed 10 million. He said booth-level officers had focused on deleting names rather than registering new voters, and the Election Commission could not produce a single example of a new voter being added during this revision. He further pointed out that 3.1 million women and 2.5 million men had been removed from the rolls.
ECI counsel Rakesh Dwivedi acknowledged that errors are possible in any exercise of this scale, but argued that they could be corrected before the final list is published on September 30. He also remarked that producing two “dead” voters in court was a theatrical gesture more suited to a television drama than a courtroom.
Some lawyers also argued that casting doubt on the citizenship of millions of people registered since 2003, and demanding that they prove their citizenship within a limited period, was legally untenable. The Court stressed that transparency and accuracy in electoral rolls are fundamental to democracy, and said it will closely monitor the case until all legal concerns are resolved.
The hearing will continue on August 13.