Will intervene if eligible voters left out: SC on Bihar roll revision

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would step in if there was mass exclusion of eligible voters in poll-bound Bihar and if the Election Commission deviated from its June 24 notification on the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

A Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi stated, “We are overviewing the matter as a judicial authority. If there is mass exclusion, we will immediately step in. Bring 15 people saying they are alive, we will deal with it.” The remark came after senior counsel Kapil Sibal and advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the petitioners, raised concerns about the potential mass exclusion of eligible voters.

The Bench directed the petitioners to file their written submissions by August 8 and scheduled hearings for August 12-13 on petitions challenging the SIR of electoral rolls ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections in October-November 2025.

Sibal and Bhushan alleged that many people were being omitted from the draft electoral roll, set for publication on August 1, which could deprive them of their voting rights. The Bench appointed nodal officers from both the petitioners’ side and the Election Commission to facilitate the filing of written submissions.

Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the EC, clarified that the procedure allowed for objections to be filed against the draft list and those excluded could always submit their objections. Describing the EC as a constitutional body, the Bench said it had to abide by the law and if any wrong was being committed, the petitioners could bring it to its notice.

The SC had on Monday refused to stay the publication of draft electoral rolls as per SIR schedule in Bihar but asked the EC to accept Aadhaar and voter ID as identity proof during the exercise.