New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar and ruled that the exercise was constitutional and legally valid.
The Court said the SIR did not violate constitutional provision and was aimed at ensuring free and fair elections through accurate and inclusive voter lists.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said the Election Commission has the constitutional authority under Article 324 to conduct such an exercise.
The Court clarified that Article 324 is not just a residual power and allows the Election Commission to issue broad directions to protect the purity of elections.
The Supreme Court, however, made it clear that the Election Commission cannot take a final decision on the citizenship of any voter.
The Court said that any deletion from the electoral roll on the ground of doubtful citizenship would not be final. Such cases must be referred to the Central government under the Citizenship Act for detailed adjudication after giving the concerned person a proper opportunity to be heard.
The Court directed the Election Commission to send the names of persons deleted from the 2003 electoral roll due to doubtful citizenship to the Central government within four weeks.
The apex court noted ECI concern that the SIR exercise was based on legitimate concerns, including large-scale migration, urbanisation, duplicate entries and inaccuracies in the electoral rolls since the last intensive revision in 2003.
During the process, nearly 65 lakh voters were excluded from the draft rolls for not submitting enumeration forms.
The Court also directed the Election Commission to treat Aadhaar as a valid identity document during the process, while clarifying that Aadhaar alone cannot be treated as proof of citizenship.
The final electoral roll published after the Bihar SIR exercise contained 7.42 crore voters, compared to 7.89 crore electors before the revision process began.