The Supreme Court, on Tuesday recognized that there may be “mistakes” in the draft electoral rolls drafted for Bihar and also accepted the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) assurance that mistakes will be corrected. The Supreme Court’s acknowledgement came as it resumed hearing a batch of petitions challenging the ECI’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) on elector lists or rolls in the state, which is likely due to assembly polls later in the year.
A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said that the poll body had accepted its willingness to make corrections through Booth Level Officers (BLOs) during the period of claims and objections. “This draft roll. It can be correct”, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the EC assured the Court.
Concern of ‘mass exclusion’
However, the petitioners voiced their concern over ‘mass exclusion’ from the rolls. Senior advocate, Gopal Sankaranarayanan, argued that the list published with the draft roll on August 1, shows that almost 65 lakh names were left out. The petitioners pointed out that the assurance given by the court was to ‘step-in’ if there was substantial exclusion.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal interjected, stating that only 3.05% of Bihar’s population has birth certificates, one of the 11 ‘indicative’ documents the ECI had requested as proof, and this, at least, made the process unduly restrictive. The Bench rejected suggestions that most of Bihar’s population was without valid proof. ‘This is a trust deficiency, not impossibility’ stated the Bench. ‘Bihar is part of India. If people in Bihar do not have these documents, other States would not have this either’ Justice Kant cautioned counsel against ‘sweeping statements.’
What is Special Intensive Revision?
The SIR electoral roll is an innovative voter list validation campaign by the Election Commission of India, that aimed at conducting free and fair elections. Under house-to-house counting, the ECI creates new electoral rolls without dependency on prior voter lists. The exercise is generally carried out when current rolls are outdated, incorrect, or need to be rebuilt in entirety usually before large-scale elections or after delimitation of constituencies. In Bihar, the SIR started on July 1, 2025, as a part of preparation for the forthcoming state assembly polls.
More than 4.89 crore enrolled voters are being checked by trained Booth Level Officers (BLOs) who are going door-to-door to make sure that no eligible voter is omitted and no ineligible individual is found on the rolls. The draft electoral roll is to be published on August 1, and claims and objections will be entertained until September 1. The updated final voters’ list will be published by September 30.
