SC to take up on November 11 petition challenging EC’s pan-India SIR exercise

Three days after the Election Commission commenced Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 12 states and union territories, the Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear on November 11 the petitions challenging the exercise.

A Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said it will begin hearing on the petitions from Monday after advocate Prashant Bhushan submitted on behalf of the Association of Democratic Reforms that “the issue goes to the root of democracy” and the SIR exercise has already started in several states.

Noting that several important matters were listed from next week onwards, the Bench said it would try to adjust the hearing of other matters to take up SIR-related petitions.

The 12 states and union territories where SIR exercise is being conducted are: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

The Supreme Court also agreed to hear on November 11 a petition filed by Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK challenging the Election Commission’s decision to conduct an SIR of electoral rolls in the state.

"A writ has been filed and registered by the political party DMK My Lords… Urgent stay has been prayed for… May list it on Monday," advocate Vivek Singh said as he mentioned the DMK's petition before a Bench led by CJI BR Gavai for urgent listing. “List it on Tuesday,” the CJI said.

While the Election Commission's June 24, 2025, notification on SIR was already under challenge, the DMK has also challenged the poll panel’s October 27, 2025 notification for SIR, describing it as “constitutional overreach” on the ground that the poll panel lacked the authority to implement it.

The Justice Surya Kant-led Bench – which is seized of petitions challenging the validity of the poll panel's decision to conduct an SIR in Bihar – had refused to stay the EC’s exercise.

Asserting that the Bihar SIR exercise was "accurate", the poll panel had on October 16 told the top court that the petitioner NGOs and political parties were merely content with making "false allegations" to discredit the exercise. Not a single appeal had been filed by any voter against alleged name deletion since the publication of the final electoral roll, it said.

It had denied the allegation of the petitioners that there was a "disproportionate exclusion of Muslims" from the final electoral roll of the state prepared after the months-long SIR exercise.

While publishing the final electoral list of the poll-bound Bihar on September 30, the EC had said the total number of electors has come down by nearly 47 lakh to 7.42 crore in the final electoral roll from 7.89 crore before SIR.

The final figure has, however, increased by 17.87 lakh from 7.24 crore electors named in the draft list issued on August 1, which had removed 65 lakh voters from the original list on various accounts, including deaths, migration and duplication of voters.

While 21.53 lakh new electors have been added to the draft list, 3.66 lakh names have been removed, resulting in a net increase of 17.87 lakh.

The first phase of elections in Bihar on 121 seats of the 243-member Assembly was held on Thursday, while the remaining 122 constituencies will go to polls on November 11. The counting of votes will be held on November 14.