The Supreme Court has upheld the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, holding that the exercise is constitutionally and statutorily valid and does not violate the Representation of the People Act, 1950 or the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
Reading out the operative portions of the judgment, the Bench of Chief Justice Surya Kany, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M Pancholi noted that the last intensive revision in Bihar was conducted in 2003 and that “over the past two decades substantial changes in electoral rolls have occurred entirely on account of rapid urbanisation and large-scale migration.” The Court said that, in furtherance of the constitutional mandate to safeguard the integrity of electoral rolls and ensure free and fair elections, the Election Commission resolved to undertake a nationwide SIR exercise.
The Court framed four principal questions for consideration, including
- whether the Election Commission had the power to conduct the SIR;
- whether the exercise was founded on a legitimate purpose;
- whether the procedure adopted violated the statutory framework governing electoral rolls; and
- whether the Commission could examine citizenship status while preparing or revising electoral rolls.
On the issue of the power of EC, the Court held that the Commission’s actions were “squarely anchored” in Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, which permits special revision at any time for reasons to be recorded and in such manner as it may think fit. The Court observed:
“Far from acting in defiance of the R.P. Act and the 1960 Rules, the Commission has squarely anchored its actions in a specific enabling provision designed by Parliament for exceptional exigency for preserving the electoral process.”
Rejecting the challenge that the SIR departed from ordinary revision procedures under Section 21(2) and Rule 25, the Court held that the exercise does not supplant the R.P. Act or the 1960 Rules but instead “breathes life into the constitutional mandate of Article 324.”
The Bench further emphasised that free and fair elections are dependent not only upon polling mechanisms but also upon accurate electoral rolls. The Court observed:
“Free and fair elections do not rest merely upon the mechanics of polling. They equally depend upon the integrity, accuracy, and clarity of the electoral roll. This forms part of the foundation of the democratic process.”
On proportionality, the Court held that the SIR exercise pursued a legitimate constitutional purpose and that the safeguards incorporated by the Election Commission and pursuant to directions issued by the Court ensured a balance between electoral integrity and inclusion. The Bench noted that the process provided “multiple avenues for participation, correction and redress” and concluded that the measures adopted were not “manifestly excessive.”
Addressing concerns regarding the presumption attached to existing entries in electoral rolls, the Court held that inclusion in the electoral roll gives rise to a presumption of validity, but such a presumption is not irreversible. The Bench observed that requiring electors to furnish supporting material during an intensive verification exercise does not amount to the negation of the presumption but merely reflects a procedural mechanism through which the Commission seeks to reaffirm or correct entries where necessary.
The Court also rejected the contention that the SIR procedure violated Rule 21A of the 1960 Rules, holding that safeguards such as notice, hearing, enquiry, publication and speaking orders were preserved in substance” within the broader revision framework. “The form may differ, but the substance remains intact,” the Court observed.
On the challenge to the documentation regime prescribed by the Election Commission, the Court upheld the Commission’s authority to prescribe a tailored framework suited to a special intensive revision exercise. It held that the list of documents prescribed was not arbitrary and that the expansion of acceptable documents demonstrated an attempt “to widen the range of acceptable routes rather than to restrict them.”
The Court further held that the Election Commission is empowered to examine questions bearing upon citizenship while preparing or revising electoral rolls, but clarified that such examination is confined to electoral purposes alone and does not amount to a final determination of citizenship status. The Bench stated:
“Such action, however, must be understood in its proper perspective. It does not amount to a declaration that the individual is not a citizen of India. It merely reflects the Commission’s inability to be satisfied for electoral purposes that the statutory conditions are met.”
The Court directed that where names had been deleted from electoral rolls on the ground that the Commission believed such persons were not citizens, those cases must be referred within four weeks to the competent authority under the Citizenship Act, 1955, for adjudication. The competent authority was directed to decide such claims preferably before the next Parliament, Assembly, local body election, whichever is earlier.
Disposing of the petitions, the Court concluded that the SIR exercise neither conflicts with the statutory framework nor detracts from the constitutional imperative of free and fair elections, but instead advances the objective of ensuring the “accuracy, completeness and integrity” of electoral rolls.
“The included SIR exercise neither stands in direct conflict with the RPF and the 1960 Rules, nor does it detract from the constitutional imperative of free and fair elections. It is, instead, an exercise traceable to Section 21(3) of the RPF, read with Article 324 of the Constitution, undertaken to advance the very objective which Part XV of the Constitution is designed to protect.”
Appearances
For Petitioners- Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv. Ms. Fauzia Shakil, AOR Ms. Aparajita Jamwal, Adv. Ms. Tasmiya Talha, Adv. Mr. P.C. Sen, Sr. Adv. Mr. Prasanna S., AOR Mr. Sayantan Chanda, Adv. Ms. Injila Muslim Zaidi, Adv. Mr. Ashish Reddy, Adv. Ms. Apoorva Singh, Adv. Mr. Prasanna B, Adv. Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Sr. Adv. Mr. Prashant Bhushan, AOR Ms. Neha Rathi, Adv. Mr. Tushan Srivastava, Adv. Mr. Sourya Dasgupta, Adv. Ms. Vrinda Grover, Adv. Mr. John Simte, Adv. Ms. Devika Tulsiani, Adv. Mr. Soutik Banerjee, Adv. Mr. Aakarsh Kamra, AOR Dr. K.S. Chauhan, Sr. Adv. Mr. P.S. Teji, Sr. Adv. Mr. Alok Kumar, Adv. Mr. Kriti Ranjan, Adv. Mr. Vishal, Adv. Mr. Amber Sachdeva, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Chauhan, Adv. Mr. Ajit Kumar Ekka, Adv. Ms. Sneh Suman, Adv. Ms. Shriya Sethi, Adv. Mr. Prem Prakash, Adv. Mr. Ravi Prakash, Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sr. Adv. Mr. Prashanto Chandra Sen, Sr. Adv. Mr. Muhammad Ali Khan, Adv. Mr. Amit Bhandari, Adv. Mr. Omar Hoda, Adv. Ms. Eesha Bakshi, Adv. Mr. Uday Bhatia, Adv. Mr. Kamran Khan, Adv. Mr. Surya Kiran Singh, Adv. Mr. Aviral Jain, Adv. Mr. Usman Ghani Khan , AOR Mr. Shoeb Alam, Sr. Adv. Ms. Fauzia Shakil, AOR Mr. Ujjwal Singh, AOR Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sr. Adv. Ms. Neha Rathi, AOR Ms. Kajal Giri, Adv. Mr. Amit Bhandari, Adv. Mr. Pranav Sachdeva, Adv. Ms. Priyansha Sharma, Adv. Ms. Somya Kumari, Adv. Mr. P. Rohit Ram, Adv. Mr. Prateek Yadav, Adv. Mr. Shadan Farasat, Sr. Adv. Mr. Kaustubh Chaturvedi, Adv. Mr. Harshit Anand, Adv. Mr. Yash S. Vijay, AOR Mr. Shikhar Aggarwal, Adv. Mr. Joshua Tom Thomas, Adv. Mr. Raju Ramachandran, Sr. Adv. Mr. Prasanna S., AOR Mr. R. Thirumoorthy, Adv. Mr. Paras Nath Singh, Adv. Ms. Rupali Samuel, Adv. Ms. Shruti Narayan, Adv. Mr. Mohammad Areet, Adv. Ms. Injila Muslim Zaidi, Adv. Mr. Ashish Reddy, Adv. Mr. Apoorva Singh, Adv. Mr. Prasanna B, Adv. Ms. Nida Khan Salim, Adv. Mr. Vijay Hansaria, Sr. Adv. Mr. Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, Adv. Mr. Ashwani Kumar Dubey, AOR Ms. Nandini Rai, Adv. Mr. Nikhil Upadhyay, Adv. Mr. Fuzail Ahmad Ayyubi, AOR Mr. Talha Abdul Rahman, AOR Mr. Vaibhav Mishra, AOR Mr. Ajit Sharma, Adv. Ms. Kanchan Kumar, Adv. Mr. Satvik Bajaj, Adv. Mr. Ravi Ranjan Mishra, Adv. Mr. Utsav Madaan, Adv. Mr. Raghav Sood, Adv. Mr. Aditya Jha, Adv. Mr. Haris Beeran, Adv. Mr. Azhar Assees, Adv. Mr. Anand B. Menon, Adv. Mr. Shaswat Jena, Adv. Ms. Rizwana R. Raj, Adv. Mr. Radha Shyam Jena, AOR Ms. Neema, AOR Mr. Raja Choudhary, Adv. Mr. Rajesh Singh Chauhan, AOR Ms. Rashmi Singh, Adv. Ms. Pinky Behera, AOR Mr. Atif Inam, AOR Mr. Abishek Jebaraj, AOR Ms. Rashmi Nandakumar, AOR. Ms. Yashmita Pandey, Adv.
For Respondents- Mr. Rakesh Dwivedi, Sr. Adv. Mr. Maninder Singh, Sr. Adv. Mr. Eklavya Dwivedi , AOR Mr. Mohd. Yasir, Adv. Mr. Kumar Utsav, Adv. Mr. Ashish Shukla, Adv. Ms. Anamika Mishra, Adv. Ms. Simran Parmar, Adv. Ms. Saumya Goswami, Adv. Ms. Sakshi Sharma, Adv. Ms. Srishti Sarrf, Adv. 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. Ashish Shukla, Adv. Ms. Anamika Mishra, Adv. Mr. Sukumar Pattjoshi, Sr. Adv. Mr. Dama Seshadri Naidu, Sr. Adv. Mr. Prateek Kumar, AOR Ms. Raina Anand, Adv. Mr. Abhinav Thakur, Adv. Mr. Deepak Sharma, Adv. Ms. Teesha, Adv. Mr. Devansh Rai, Adv. Ms. Ankita, Adv. Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv. Mr. Raman Yadav, Adv. Mr. Gaurang Bhushan, Adv. Ms. Sansriti Pathak, Adv. Mr. Bhakti Vardhan Singh, Adv. Mr. Prashant Singh-ii, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Mr. Aman Mehta, Adv. Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General Mr. Kanu Agrawal, Adv. Mr. Raman Yadav, Adv. Ms. Sansriti Pathak, Adv. Mr. Gaurang Bhushan, Adv. Mr. Aman Mehta, Adv. Mr. Bhakti Vardhan Singh, Adv. Mr. Prashant Singh-ii, Adv. Dr. N. Visakamurthy, AOR Mr. Shail Kumar Dwivedi, AOR Mr. Manish Kumar, AOR Mr. Divyansh Mishra, Adv. Mr. Kumar Saurav, Adv. Mr. Guntur Pramod Kumar, AOR Ms. Prerna Singh, Adv. Mr. Dhruv Yadav, Adv. Mr. Shadan Farasat, Sr. Adv. Mr. Kaustubh Chaturvedi, Adv. Mr. Harshit Anand, Adv. Mr. Yash S. Vijay, AOR Mr. Shikhar Aggarwal, Adv. Mr. Joshua Tom Thomas, Adv. Mr. Shivam Singh, Adv. Mr. Gopal Singh, AOR Mr. Prashant Kumar Umrao, AOR Mr. Prateek Som, Adv. Mr. Akshat Bajpai, AOR Ms. Fauzia Shakil, AOR Mr. Lokesh Sinhal, Sr. A.A.G. Mr. Samar Vijay Singh, AOR Ms. Sabarni Som, Adv. Ms. Ishika Gupta, Adv. Mr. Sarthak Arya, Adv. Mr. Gaj Singh, Adv. Mr. Nikunj Gupta, Adv. Mr. Keshav Mittal, Adv. Ms. Yuvika Sharma, Adv. Mr. Affan Anish, Adv. Mr. Yashvir Singh Hooda, Adv. Mr. Arman Roop Sharma, Adv. Ms. Shimpy Arman Sharma, Adv. Mr. Mohd. Aman Khan Afghani, Adv. Ms. Priya Pachouri, Adv. Ms. Shivangi Goel, Adv. Mr. Pramod Tiwari, Adv. Mr. Vivek Tiwari, Adv. Ms. Priyanka Dubey, Adv. Dr. Vinod Kumar Tewari, AOR Mr. Anuj Tiwari, AOR Mr. Naveen Sharma, AOR Mrs. Swati Bhushan Sharma, Adv. Mr. S.k. Sharma, Adv. Ms. Payal Gola, Adv. Mr. Samarvir Singh, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv. Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, AOR Mr. Shrirang B. Varma, Adv. Mr. Lenin Singh Hijam, Adv. Gen. (Sr. Adv.) Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, AOR Mr. Karun Sharma, Adv. Ms. Anupama Ngangom, Adv. Ms. Rajkumari Divyasana, Adv. Mr. P. V. Yogeswaran, AOR Ms. Shailja Singh, Adv. Mr. Karan Sharma, AOR Mr. S. Udaya Kumar Sagar, AOR Mr. Sameer Abhyankar, AOR Mr. Rahul Kumar, Adv. Mr. Aakash Thakur, Adv. Ms. Devina Sehgal, AOR Mr. Yatharth Kansal, Adv. Mr. Srikanth Varma Mudunuru, Adv. Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv. Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Sr. Adv. Mr. Debanjan Mandal, Adv. Mr. Kunal Mimani, AOR Ms. Mahima Cholera, Adv. Ms. Shraddha Chirania, Adv. Ms. Aparajita Jamwal, Adv. Mr. Tushar Shrivastava, Adv. Mr. Shaurya Dasgupta, Adv. Ms. Mrinal Elkar Mazumdar,, Adv. Mr. Mukesh Kumar Verma, Adv. Mr. Santosh Ramdurg, Adv. Ms. Indira Bhakar, Adv. Mr. Yogesh Vats, Adv. Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria, AOR Mr. Kanu Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Gaurang Bhushan, Adv. Ms. Sansriti Pathak, Adv. Mr. Bhakti Vardhan Singh, Adv. Mr. Prashant Singh Ii, Adv. Mr. Raman Yadav, Adv. Mr. Aman Mehta, Adv. Mr. Nishesh Sharma, AOR Mr. Mohd Parvez Dabas, Adv. Mr. Syed Mehdi Imam, AOR Mr. Uzmi Jamil Husain, Adv. Mr. Tabrez Ahmad, Adv. Mr. Kaleeswaram Raj, Adv. Mr. Mohammed Sadique T.a., AOR Mrs. Thulasi K Raj, Adv. Ms. Aparna Menon, Adv. Ms. Chinnu Maria Antony, Adv. Mr. Kailash Prashad Pandey, AOR Mr. Hitesh Kumar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Amit Kumar Chawla, Adv. Mr. Mahi Pal Singh, Adv. Mr. Abhijit S. Kamble, Adv. Mr. Akhileshwar Jha, Adv. Mr. Subhash S. Kadm, Adv. Mr. Varun Varma, Adv. Mr. Rajesh Singh, Adv. Mr. Javed Raza, Adv. Ms. Anushka K. Deshmhuk, Adv. Ms. Shreya Jha, Adv. Ms. Manisha Chawla, Adv. Ms. Niharika Dwivedi, Adv. Ms. Swati Vishan, Adv. Ms. Charanjeet Sidhu, Adv. Mr. Desh Pal Singh, Adv. Mr. Anupam Kumar, Adv. Mr. Jogender Kumar, Adv. Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, Adv. Mr. Kamlesh Kumar Pandey, Adv. Mr. Raghavendra Pratap Singh, Adv. Mr. Sandeep Kumar Sharma, Adv. Mr. Prince Raj, Adv. Mr. Prabhu Razdan, Adv. Mr. Dilip Kumar, Adv. Ms. Kumud Lata Das, AOR Mr. Bibhuti Krishna, Adv. Mr. Aman Anand, Adv. Mr. Ravi Agrawal, Adv. Mr. Siddhant Narayan Das, Adv. Ms. Pooja Rathore, Adv. Mr. Harsh Ajay Singh, 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. Vaibhav Singh, Adv. Mr. Anantha Narayana M.G., AOR Mr. Kalyan Bandopadhyay, Sr. Adv. Mr. Vivek Singh, AOR Mr. Abhisek Mohanty, Adv. Mr. Rahul Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. A Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Sr. Adv. Mr. Debanjan Mandal, Adv. Mr. Kunal Mimani, AOR Ms. Mahima Cholera, Adv. Ms. Shraddha Chirania, Adv. Ms. Aparajita Jamwal, Adv. Mr. Tushar Shrivastava, Adv. Mr. Shaurya Dasgupta, Adv. Mr. Anilendra Pandey, AOR Ms. Aarati Sah, Adv. Mr. Animesh Shukla, Adv. Mr. Pradeep Kumar Rai, Sr. Adv. Ms. Farhat Naim, Adv. Mr. Vinay Kumar Rai, Adv. Mrs. Rajshree Rai, Adv. Ms. Modoyia Kayina, Adv. Mr. Paras Chauhan, Adv. Mr. Parimal Rai, Adv. Mr. Virendra Singh, Adv. Mr. Harish Gupta, Adv. M/s R And R Law Associates, AOR Mr. Anand Nandan, Adv. Mr. Kuldeep Mishra, Adv. Ms. Aashna Aggarwal, Adv. Mr. Rameshwar Prasad Goyal, AOR Mr. Manish Kumar, AOR Mr. Divyansh Mishra, Adv. Mr. Kumar Saurav, Adv. Mr. Kumar Sambhrant Krishna, AOR Mr. Binay Kumar, Adv. Dr. Siddhartha Priya Ashok, AOR
