Says exercise breathes life into mandate for fair polls
NEW DELHI, MAY 27 (PTI): Delivering a major victory for the Election Commission, the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld its power to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls and said the exercise “breathes life” into the constitutional mandate for fair elections.
In its ruling on the intensely debated issue, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant held that the exercise advances the “constitutional imperative of free and fair elections”.
The bench, also comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi, held that the poll panel was empowered under Article 324 of the Constitution and Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act (RPA) to carry out special revisions.
Disposing of a batch of petitions challenging the SIR exercise in Bihar, the apex court held that deletion from the voter list does not amount to a legal declaration that an individual is not a citizen.
The Supreme Court verdict led to sharp political reactions from across the political spectrum.
According to the apex court, the credibility of the democratic process rests on the accuracy of the voter list.
“We are unable to conclude that the impugned exercise is a process resorted solely for administrative convenience,” the bench said.
Free and fair elections, it said, do not rest merely upon the mechanics of polling. “They fundamentally depend upon the integrity, accuracy, and credibility of the electoral rolls,” it said.
“The SIR breathes life into the constitutional mandate for fair elections,” the court said while rejecting arguments that the EC had overstepped its statutory powers.
In the first phase, the poll panel initiated the SIR in Bihar, where 65 lakh names were removed from electoral rolls on grounds of rapid urbanisation and large-scale migration over the last four decades.
The bench examined three questions — whether the EC has the power to conduct an exercise like SIR, whether the inquiry under the SIR is founded on a legitimate purpose, and if the procedure adopted was contrary to or in violation of the provisions of the RPA.
The top court agreed with the EC’s grounds for the SIR.
According to the apex court, the SIR met the requirements of proportionality and the measures adopted bore a reasonable nexus to the objectives sought to be achieved.
It said the measures were not manifestly excessive and accompanied by sufficient procedural safeguards to prevent arbitrary exclusion.
A key objection raised by the petitioners, including the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), was that the SIR functioned as an “NRC-like process” with poll panel allegedly verifying citizenship, a power they argued vests solely with the Central government.
The bench held that the EC has the authority to examine citizenship status only for the limited purpose of determining eligibility for the electoral roll.
While an entry in the roll carries a presumption of citizenship, that presumption is rebuttable through a “proper and appropriate inquiry”, it said.
To prevent disenfranchisement, the court asked the poll panel to refer all cases of names being deleted on citizenship grounds to the competent authority under the Citizenship Act within four weeks.
The CJI said the competent authority must conclude the citizenship determination before the next Vidhan Sabha or local body elections.
If the authority confirms the individual’s citizenship, the name must be immediately restored to the electoral rolls, the verdict directed.
Domiciles of Bihar, whose names were erroneously deleted due to “absence” (migration) but who still reside in the state, are entitled to submit representations for restoration, it said.
The detailed judgement is awaited.
The petitions were filed last year after the EC notified the SIR in Bihar ahead of the 2025 Assembly elections. The court had reserved its verdict on January 29 this year after extensive hearings.