Supreme Court Begins Final Hearing on Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls

The Supreme Court on Tuesday began hearing final arguments on the validity of Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls — the first since the release of the final voter list. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi is hearing the matter, stressing that it will not give any “piecemeal opinion” on the exercise.

The Election Commission of India (ECI), in its submission, asserted its exclusive constitutional authority to decide when and how to conduct the SIR, urging the Court not to interfere in its jurisdiction. The Commission emphasized that the process was carried out in compliance with the law and that a nationwide SIR is planned by 2026.

Earlier, on September 15, the Supreme Court had observed that it was presuming lawful conduct by the ECI but warned that any illegality detected could lead to the SIR being set aside.

The final electoral rolls released on September 30 included 7.42 crore registered voters in Bihar. Data show that 65 lakh names were deleted during the revision — over 55% for permanent migration or being untraceable, 34% as deceased, and 10.8% as multiple entries.

A demographic analysis also found no evidence of disproportionate Muslim deletions, with 18.4% of deleted names belonging to Muslims — close to their 17.7% population share in the State (Bihar Caste Census 2022).

Observers note that the SIR case represents a clash between the ECI’s constitutional powers and citizens’ right to vote, with the Court expected to clarify the limits of administrative discretion in electoral roll management.