The EC had started the SIR exercise with Bihar in July last year, following it up with similar exercises in nine other states, including West Bengal, and three Union Territories, from November 2025.
As the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls was constitutional, the petitioners who had challenged the exercise last year said the judgment had put a stamp of approval on the disenfranchisement of millions of electors in the “hurried” and “discriminatory” drive.
Major General Anil Verma (retd.), the head of the Association of Democratic Reforms, the first one to challenge the SIR, said the judgment was “disappointing”.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who was among the petitioners against the EC’s June 24, 2025 SIR order, said in a post on X: “SC’s Bihar SIR decision today puts a stamp of approval on ECI’s illogical, hurried & discriminatory practices that ultimately led to 27 lakh valid voters unable to vote after Bengal SIR & whose fate is still in limbo. Justice must be done & must also be seen to be done.”
The EC had started the SIR with Bihar in July last year, following it up with the implementation in nine other states, including West Bengal, and three Union Territories from November 2025. Earlier this month, the commission announced the schedule for 22 states/UTs.
Another petitioner, Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav, said on X that he felt the case had been decided in August last year itself.
"The case was effectively decided when the apex court allowed the ECI to rush through the Bihar elections without first deciding the matter, and without requiring the ECI to rectify even the most glaring defects in post-SIR rolls…Shorn of legalese, the simple truth is that the highest court of a constitutional democracy has already authorised the disenfranchisement of millions of citizens — at least 59 million so far, could go up eventually to 100 million,” Yadav said.
He said the judgment, of a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, had given the EC a “carte blanche” to do what it wants with the electoral rolls.