On 22 August 2025, a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi heard multiple petitions concerning alleged irregularities in the ongoing electoral roll revision in Bihar. The matter was brought by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and others against the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The Court noted the ECI’s status report, which stated that the Draft Electoral Roll was published on 1 August 2025 and duly handed over to district presidents of all 12 recognized political parties in Bihar, with meetings videographed and receipts signed. It was clarified that all names received through enumeration forms had been included, and objections could be filed online or in prescribed Form 7 under the 1960 Rules.
Despite approximately 1.6 lakh booth-level agents (BLAs) being appointed by political parties, the Court was informed that only two objections had been filed so far. The Bench observed that particularly since around 65 lakh voters were reportedly left out of the draft rolls. Some parties alleged their BLAs were not being allowed to submit objections, while the ECI insisted the process was open and transparent.
To safeguard voter rights, the Court directed all 12 recognized political parties six national and six state parties to immediately instruct their BLAs to assist voters in filing claims and objections before the cut-off date of 1 September 2025. Parties were ordered to be impleaded as respondents and their presidents/working presidents/general secretaries asked to remain present in future hearings.
The Bench reiterated its earlier directions of 14 August 2025, clarifying that individual voters could apply online directly or through BLAs, and that booth-level officers must acknowledge receipt of physical forms. It also suggested the Election Commission consider publishing details of objection forms on its website for greater transparency.
The matter has been listed for further hearing on 8 September 2025.
Appearances:
Petitioner: Ms. Rashmi Singh, Adv; Ms. Pinky Behera, AOR; Mr. Atif Inam, AOR; Mr. Zarif Hosain, Adv.
Mr. Nizam Pasha, Adv. Mr. Arif Ali, Adv. Mr. Madhav Deepak, Adv. Mr. Abishek Jebaraj, AOR
Ms. A Reyna Shruti, Adv. Mr. D. P. Singh, Adv. Mr. Prashanto C.Sen, Sr.Adv. Mr. Prasanna S., AOR Mr. Rohit Ghosh, Adv. Ms. Rashi Goswami, Adv. Ms. Injila Muslim Zaidi, Adv. Mr. Prasanna B., Adv. Ms. Vrinda Grover, Adv. Mr. John Simte, Adv. Ms. Devika Tulsiani, Adv. Mr. Soutik Banerjee, Adv.
Mr. Aakarsh Kamra, AOR Mr. Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, AOR Mr. Ibad Mushtaq, Adv. Ms. Akanksha Rai, Adv. Ms. Gurneet Kaur, Adv. Dr. K.S. Chauhan, Sr. Adv. Mr. P.S. Teji, Sr. Adv. Mr. Kriti Ranjan, Adv. Mr. Ajit Kumar Ekka, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Chauhan, Adv. Ms. Divya Sinha, Adv. Ms. Shriya Sethi, Adv. Mr. Pushp Manikesh, Adv. Mr. Rsm Kalky, Adv. Mr. Ravi Shankar Singh, Adv. Mr. Narender Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Ratan Singh, Adv. Mr. Alok Kumar, Adv. Mr. Ravi Prakash, AOR Mr. Ashwani Kumar Dubey, AOR Mr. Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, Adv. Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Prashanto Chandra Sen, Sr. Adv. Mr. Usman Ghani Khan, AOR Mr. Muhammad Ali Khan, Adv. Mr. Amit Bhandari, Adv. Mr. Omar Hoda, Adv. Ms. Eesha Bakshi, Adv.4 Mr. Uday Bhatia, Adv. Mr. Arjun Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Kamran Khan, Adv. Ms. Gurbani Bhatia, Adv. Mr. B Vittal, Adv. Mr. Surya Kiran Singh, Adv. Mr. Rohit Ghosh, Adv. Mr. Shoeb Alam, Sr. Adv. Mr. Ujjwal Singh, AOR Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv. Ms. Fauzia Shakil, AOR Ms. Aparajita Jamwal, Adv. Ms. Tasmiya Talaha, Adv. Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sr. Adv.
Ms. Neha Rathi, AOR Ms. Kajal Giri, Adv. Mr. Pranav Sachdeva, Adv. Mr. P. Rohit Ram, Adv. Ms. Priyansha Sharma, Adv. Ms. Somya Kumari, Adv. Mr. Amit Bhandari, Adv. Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sr. Adv. Ms. Shahrukh Alam, Adv. Mr. Amit Bhandari, Adv. Mr. Talha Abdul Rahman, AOR
Mr. M Shaz Khan, Adv. Mr. Shantanu, Adv. Mr. Rafid Akhter, Adv. Ms. Priyansha Sharma, Adv. Mr. Sudhanshu Tewari, Adv. Mr. Faizan Ahmed, Adv. Mr. Kalyan Bandopadhyay, Sr. Adv. Mr. Vivek Singh, AOR
Mr. Abhisek Mohanty, Adv. Mr. Shadan Farasat, Sr. Adv. Mr. Harshit Anand, Adv. Mr. Natasha Maheshwari, Adv. Mr. Yash S. Vijay, AOR Mr. Shikhar Aggarwal, Adv. Mr. Rishav Ranjan, Adv. Mr. Haris Beeran, Adv. Mr. Azhar Assees, Adv. Mr. Anand B. Menon, Adv. Mr. Radha Shyam Jena, AOR5
Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Sr. Adv. Mr. Prashant Bhushan, AOR Ms. Neha Rathi, Adv. Ms. Cheryl D’Souza, Adv. Mr. Tushar Srivastava, Adv. Mr. Shourya Dasgupta, Adv. Mr. Satayam Singh, Adv. Mr. Shivam Singh, Adv. Mr. Sanjeev Gupta, Adv. Mr. Amit Kumar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Neeraj Kumar Singh, Adv. Ms. Yukti Rathi, Adv. Ms. Diksha Singh, Adv. Ms. Vipasa Jain, Adv. Ms. Neema, AOR
Mr. Raja Choudhay, Adv. Ms. Anushika Mishra, Adv. Mr. Kapil Kumar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Dhruv Tiwari, Adv. Mr. Rajesh Singh Chauhan, AOR Ms. Aarti Sah, Adv. Mr. Animesh Shukla, Adv. Mr. Anilendra Pandey, Adv. Mr. Aman Prasad, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Jebraj, Adv.
For Respondent(s) Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv. Mr. Raman Yadav, Adv. Mr. Sansriti Pathak, Adv. Mr. Gaurang Bhushan, Adv. Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Mr. Maninder Singh, Sr. Adv. Mr. Sidhant Kumar, Adv. Mr. Sahil Tagotra, AOR Mr. Prabhas Bajaj, Adv. Ms. Manyaa Chandok, Adv. Mr. Om Batra, Adv. Ms. Shreya Kasera, Adv. Mr. Amarpal Dua, Adv. Mr. Dama Seshadri Naidu, Sr. Adv. Mr. Sukumar Pattjoshi, Sr. Adv. Mr. Prateek Kumar, AOR Mr. Abhinav Thakur, Adv. Mr. Rajesh Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Deepak Sharma, Adv. Ms. Raina Anand, Adv. Mr. Rakesh Dwivedi, Sr. Adv. Mr. Maninder Singh, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Mohd. Yasir, Adv. Mr. Kumar Utsav, Adv. Mr. Ashish Shukla, Adv. Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv. Mr. Raman Yadav, Adv. Ms. Sansriti Pathak, Adv. Mr. Gaurang Bhushan, Adv. Dr. N. Visakamurthy, AOR
Mr. Manish Kumar, AOR Mr. Divyansh Mishra, Adv. Mr. Kumar Saurav, Adv. Mr. Anand Sharma, Adv. Mr. Arman Roop Sharma, Adv. Ms. Shimpy Sharma, Adv. Mr. Mohd Aman Khan Afghani, Adv. Ms. Priya Pachouri, Adv. Ms. Shivangi Goel, Adv. Ms. Priyanka Dubey, Adv. Dr. Vinod Kumar Tewari, AOR
Mr. Samarvir Singh, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv. Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR Mr. Shrirang B. Varma, Adv. Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, AOR Mr. Karun Sharma, Adv. Ms. Anupama Ngangom, Adv. Ms. Rajkumari Divyasana, Adv. Mr. Padmesh Mishra, A.A.G. Mr. S. Udaya Kumar Sagar, AOR
Mr. Mrinal Elkar Mazumdar, Adv. Ms. Indra Bhakar, Adv. Mr. Mukesh Kumar Verma, Adv. Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR Mr. Kailash Prashad Pandey, AOR Mr. Hitesh Kumar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Amit Kumar Chawla, Adv. Mr. Akhileshwar Jha, Adv. Mr. Mahi Pal Singh, Adv. Mr. Rajesh Singh, Adv. Mr. Varun Varma, Adv. Mr. Shubham Rajhans, Adv. Mr. Ishank Ranjan, Adv. Mr. Prakhar Shukla, Adv. Mr. Rakesh Vishan, Adv.
Mr. Javed Raza, Adv. Ms. Manisha Chawla, Adv. Ms. Niharika Dwivedi, Adv. Ms. Charnjeet Sidhu, Adv. Ms. Sawti Vishan, Adv. Mr. Jatin Malik, Adv. Mr. Saurabh Kumar Solnki, Adv. Mr. Supiriya, Adv. Mr. Chaman Sharma, Adv. Mr. Barun Kumar Sinha, Adv. Mrs. Pratibha Sinha, Adv. Mr. Sneh Vardhan, Adv. Mr. Chhail Bihari Singh, Adv. Mr. Rakesh Mudgal, Adv. Mr. Ritu Raj, Adv. Mr. Pankaj Kumar Shukla, Adv. Mrs. Kanika, Adv. Mr. Sidhant Thakur, Adv. Mr. Anantha Narayana M.g., AOR
Mr. Neeraj, Adv. Mr. Mohammed Sadique T.A., AOR Ms. Kumud Lata Das, AOR Mr. Bibhuti Krishna, Adv. Mr. Aman Anand, Adv. Mr. Himanshu Singh, Adv. Ms. Pooja Rathore, Adv. Mr. Puneet Chauhan, Adv. Mr. Kalyan Bandopadhyay, Sr. Adv. Mr. Vivek Singh, AOR Mr. Abhisek Mohanty, Adv. Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv. Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Sr. Adv. Mr. Debanjan Mandal, Adv. Mr. Kunal Vajani, Adv. Mr. Kunal Mimani, AOR Ms. Mahima Cholera, Adv. Ms. Shraddha Chirania, Adv. Mr. Dhruv Sahu, Adv. Ms. Aparajita Jamwal, Adv. Mr. Anilendra Pandey, AOR Ms. Aarati Sah, Adv. Mr. Animesh Shukla, Adv.
