ECI’s Special Voter Roll Revision Lands In SC; Petitioners Flag ‘Mass Disenfranchisement’

Petitioners challenging the Election Commission of India's (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls told the Supreme Court that the commission has no authority to introduce sweeping changes to the constitutional framework through procedural orders.

During the hearing, senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal argued that the ECI cannot rely on its plenary powers under Article 324 to justify the SIR exercise. They maintained that the Representation of the People Act, 1950, already governs the field and restricts the commission to established statutory processes. According to them, the SIR's mechanisms - including large-scale verification and presumptive deletions - amount to legislative action that only Parliament can undertake. Such steps, they warned, could lead to widespread disenfranchisement without individual scrutiny and violate Articles 14, 19, 21, 325, and 326 of the Constitution.

As the bench examined the petitions, Chief Justice Surya Kant questioned whether, under the petitioners' interpretation, the ECI would be entirely barred from conducting any form of SIR. He also pointed to procedural differences across states, noting that Bihar has already completed its SIR, while Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal are scheduled for hearings on December 2, 4, and 9 respectively.

The petitions before the court have been filed by PUCL, seven political parties - including CPI(M), CPI, and DMK - ADR, and several other groups. They seek to strike down all SIR-related orders issued by the ECI since June 2025, arguing that the commission has exceeded its constitutional and statutory powers.