A plea opposing the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) recent revision of electoral roll in poll-bound Bihar will be taken up by the Supreme Court on Thursday. This petition has been filed by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Trinamool Congress MPs Manoj Jha and Mahua Moitra, NGOs such as the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), political activist Yogendra Yadav, and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).
A bench of justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi said, “Put up on Thursday. An advance copy of the petition be given to the respondent ECI.”
Stating the urgency of the matter, Senior advocate Kapil Sibal said that SC should treat this case as an urgent matter and issue notice to ECI. Supporting Sibal’s request, Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi said that instead of waiting to summon the respondent, the court must consider sending a notice. “Such a squeezed timeline has been specified with just a month given to submit the enumeration forms that will expire later this month.”
The stance reflects the broader legal principle that the judiciary is tasked with interpreting laws and assessing their validity, not enacting them or interfering in legislative processes. Judicial restraint in electoral matters has been a recurring theme in Indian legal history, often cited by the Supreme Court in cases seeking to halt elections.
The bench further stated that the election has not been notified and a copy can be sent to the office of attorney general of India, will look into it.
During a conversation with CSR Journal, The PUCL representative shared that the constitutional challenge to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is based on the argument that the impugned SIR process represents a direct assault on India’s constitutional democracy, violating the grundnorm of popular sovereignty enshrined in “WE, THE PEOPLE.” By abandoning statutory house-to-house surveys for arbitrary document- centred exclusions, creating impossible timelines, and systematically disenfranchised marginalized communities, the Election Commission has perverted the constitutional mandate, and inverted the principle of inclusion to that of – Exclusion.
PUCL contends that Bihar has a massive migrant population, who work across India but return home to exercise their democratic rights and they face systematic exclusion through this malicious SIR process. Migrant workers lack local address proofs, cannot navigate complex form-based procedures from distant locations, and miss compressed timelines due to work commitments. This timing appears deliberately calculated to disenfranchise Bihar’s mobile workforce during crucial electoral periods. The process exhibits legal malice by creating insurmountable barriers for citizens whose only “fault” is economic migration, violating constitutional equality and universal suffrage principles. SIR appears to be an exercise that is designed to exclude – using new tools of gerrymandering and administrative powers.
On June 24, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced a revision of the electoral roll, highlighting the urgent need to update it in light of rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, a growing number of first-time voters, unreported deaths, and the presence of undocumented foreigners.
