“If you are to check citizenship under the SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, then you should have acted early. It is a bit late,” the apex court told the EC.
The top court also questioned the EC over the exclusion of Aadhaar card from the list of documents in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.
The EC told the court that citizenship is required to be checked for being a voter in India under Article 326 of the Constitution. The EC said it has some preliminary objections to pleas challenging special intensive revision of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
The court was hearing pleas challenging the EC’s decision for a special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of Assembly elections scheduled in November this year.
A bench comprising Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi has over 10 related matters listed for hearing on July 10.
RJD MP Manoj Jha, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, Congress’ KC Venugopal, Supriya Sule from the Sharad Pawar NCP faction, D Raja from Communist Party of India, Harinder Singh Malik from Samajwadi Party, Arvind Sawant from Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), Sarfraz Ahmed from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Dipankar Bhattacharya of CPI (ML) have jointly moved the top court.
All leaders have challenged the Election Commission’s order directing for SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar and sought direction for its quashing.
On June 24, the EC issued instructions to carry out a Special Intensive Revision in Bihar to weed out ineligible names and ensure all eligible citizens are included in the electoral roll, allowing them to exercise their franchise in the polls slated later this year.
The poll panel has said it has taken additional steps in the intensive revision to ensure illegal migrants do not get enrolled in the voters’ list.
It said the SIR is being conducted in accordance with the provisions of Article 326, RP Act 1950 and instructions issued on 24.06.2025.
