A writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Saturday challenging the June 24 notification issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI), calling for a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar.
Filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms, the plea submitted that the ECI notification violated Articles 14, 19, 21, 325, and 326 of the Constitution, along with provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and Rule 21A of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
As per the June 24 directive, voters who did not figure in the 2003 electoral rolls needed to submit the specified citizenship documents to prove they were genuine citizens of Bihar.
The plea sought quashing of the notification on the grounds that it could arbitrarily and without due process disenfranchise lakhs of voters, undermining free and fair elections, thus striking at the heart of the basic structure of the Constitution.
The stringent documentation requirements, absence of adequate procedural safeguards and the unreasonably short timeline for conducting SIR in Bihar were likely to result in wrongful deletion of genuine voters from the rolls, effectively denying them their right to vote, it added.
Filed through Advocate Prashant Bhushan, the plea contended that the requirement under the SIR process for voters to furnish documents not only to prove their own citizenship but also that of their parents violated Article 326. Failing to meet these requirements could lead to their names being excluded from the draft electoral roll or even removed altogether.
By excluding common identification documents like Aadhaar and ration cards, the process disproportionately impacted marginalised communities and the poor, making them more susceptible to being left out, it added.
The petition claimed that by issuing this order, ECI had shifted the responsibility of proving eligibility to be on the electoral rolls from the State to individual citizens.
The Commission has set an unreasonable and impractical timeline for carrying out the SIR in Bihar, especially given its proximity to the state elections scheduled for November 2025.
There were lakhs of citizens whose names were not on the 2003 electoral rolls and who lacked the documents demanded under the SIR order. While some may be able to obtain these documents, the short deadline prescribed by the directive could prevent them from doing so in time, it noted.
Calling Bihar as a state marked by high levels of poverty and migration, the plea submitted that the state had a large population without access to essential documents like birth certificates or records of their parents.
The plea claimed that the SIR process had already begun in the state.
If the June 24 notification was not quashed, it could deprive more than three crore voters, especially those from marginalised groups such as SCs, STs and migrant workers, of their right to vote, it added.
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