The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Election Commission of India (ECI), seeking its detailed response to a batch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
"Issue notice to the ECI. We will seek reply from the ECI and others and then we will hear the matter," said a two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Surya Kant and also comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and posted the matter for further hearing to November 26.
The top court also directed the High Courts to keep in abeyance the petitions filed before them in relation to the SIR in various states including Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Bihar.
The court heard the petitions filed by Trinamool Congress MP Dola Sen, West Bengal Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
The DMK moved the apex court through its secretary RS Bharathi challenging the SIR exercise in Tamil Nadu.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the DMK, argued that the SIR exercise was being undertaken in a tearing hurry unlike before when it used to take three years to revise the electoral rolls.
To this, the bench asked the petitioners why they were so apprehensive about the exercise.
Challenging the validity of the SIR exercise, Sibal submitted that the situation in different states were different. This monsoon season in Tamil Nadu there would be a lot of rain, which might not be the case in other states, he said.
"It is not uniform across the country. The BLOs etc. will have to manage the flood relief as well. December and January is harvest season too in Tamil Nadu and that time is not conducive," Sibal contended.
The ECI had in its earlier hearings sought dismissal by the top court of the batch of pleas which challenged the June 24 decision of the poll panel to conduct the Bihar SIR exercise.
Appearing for the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), lawyer Prashant Bhushan claimed that fresh deletions have taken place in the draft rolls and these have not been revealed.
The ECI, in its affidavit, said that the petitioners' claim regarding time being short and the exercise being conducted hastily was incorrect and misconceived. "The reference to high degree of illiteracy of people in the state of Bihar, numerous districts being flooded, and therefore, SIR exercise would lead to mass disenfranchisement due to inability of electors to furnish documents sought under the SIR order of June 24, 2025 was also misconceived, incorrect and erroneous," it added.
The ECI further stated that it was surprising that the petitioners who claim to be public spirited bodies have not made any attempt to assist persons whose names have been deleted or who have grievances of exclusion either due to negligence or inadvertence to take remedial steps by filing Form 6 + Declaration, Form 7 or Form 8, or an appeal.
"This indicates that the petitioners have ulterior motives and are merely content with making false allegations to discredit the SIR exercise, final electoral roll and the ECI," it said.
The ECI also submitted that the non-inclusions of the approximately 65 lakh individuals who did not submit forms were due to death, permanent shifting, enrolment at multiple places, and this does not amount to deletion or disenfranchisement.
"Individuals who are dead are excluded by virtue of their demise. With respect to cases of permanent shifting, the change of residence is on account of personal volition of electors who, in any case, are entitled to be registered in the electoral roll of the constituency where they ordinarily reside after shifting. In any case, upon exclusion from the electoral roll of State of Bihar, the elector concerned remains enrolled in the electoral roll of the constituency where he is additionally enrolled. Therefore, this is also not a case of deletion. Thus, it is incorrect to say that the SIR exercise is so designed as to result in large scale disenfranchisement," it stated.
It is currently seized of a batch of pleas filed by the ADR, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Yogendra Yadav, Lok Sabha MP from Trinamool Congress Mahua Moitra, Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha, Congress leader K C Venugopal and Mujahid Alam.
On August 22, the SC directed the EC to allow the 65 lakh excluded voters to submit their claims through online mode besides making physical submissions in the SIR exercise of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar.
The petitioners sought a direction by the top court to set aside the ECI’s SIR order of June 24.
"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's plea, filed in 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's publication of the draft voters list on August 1 after the SIR exercise in Bihar. It also urged the EC to complete the process by including Aadhaar and voter ID cards in the list of documents.