NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce its judgment on Wednesday on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise of electoral rolls being carried out by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in various States.
A three-judge Bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V M Pancholi, had reserved its verdict on January 29 and will pronounce the judgment on Wednesday.
The top court will decide whether the Election Commission has the power to conduct the SIR exercise in its present form under Article 326 of the Constitution, the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the related rules.
The batch of petitions, filed in June last year following the ECI’s decision to conduct the SIR exercise in Bihar and other States, includes pleas filed by NGOs such as the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), political activist Yogendra Yadav, Mahua Moitra (Trinamool Congress MP), Manoj Jha (Rashtriya Janata Dal MP), K C Venugopal (Congress MP), Supriya Sule (Nationalist Congress Party MP), Mujahid Alam, the National Federation for Indian Women (NFIW), and others.
The ECI had last year directed the conduct of an SIR exercise in Bihar and several other States, following which a batch of pleas was filed before the top court challenging the constitutional validity of the exercise.
The petitioners sought a direction from the top court to set aside the ECI’s June 24, 2025 order on the SIR exercise.
“Issue a writ, order or direction setting aside Order and Communication dated 24.06.2025 and accompanying guidelines issued by ECI to conduct SIR of the electoral rolls in Bihar as being in violation of Articles 14, 19, 21, 325, 326 of the Constitution of India and provisions of Representation of People (RP) Act, 1950 and Registration of Electors Rules, 1960,” said the ADR plea filed before the top court.
The court also impleaded all political parties in the batch of pleas challenging the EC’s drive launched on June 24 for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.
On July 28, the Supreme Court refused to stay the EC from publishing the draft voters’ list on August 1, 2025, following the SIR exercise in Bihar.
The ECI defended the SIR exercise and submitted before the top court that it was a legitimate process that had been conducted in various States.
