Plea In Supreme Court Challenges ECI’s Bihar Voter Roll Revision

A writ petition has been filed within the Supreme Court docket difficult Election Fee of India’s order handed on June 25 for a Particular Intensive Revision of Electoral Roll in Bihar.

The petition filed by Affiliation for Democratic Reforms contends that the ECI order is bigoted and may disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters.

The ECI’s directive requires a Particular Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls in Bihar, as per which voters who don’t determine within the 2003 electoral rolls need to submit the desired citizenship paperwork to show they’re real residents.

The petitioner contends that the ECI order violates Articles 14, 19, 21, 325, and 326 of the Structure, together with provisions of the Illustration of the Individuals Act, 1950 and Rule 21A of the Registration of Electors Guidelines, 1960.

The petitioner argues that until this order dated 24.06.2025 is quashed, it might arbitrarily and with out due course of disenfranchise lakhs of voters, undermining free and truthful elections and thus placing on the coronary heart of the essential construction of the Structure. The stringent documentation necessities, absence of satisfactory procedural safeguards, and the unreasonably quick timeline for conducting this particular revision in Bihar are more likely to consequence within the wrongful deletion of real voters from the rolls, successfully denying them their proper to vote.

Additionally it is contended that by issuing this order, the ECI has shifted the accountability of proving eligibility to be on the electoral rolls from the State to particular person residents. By excluding frequent identification paperwork like Aadhaar and ration playing cards, the method disproportionately impacts marginalised communities and the poor, making them extra vulnerable to being neglected. Moreover, the requirement below the SIR course of for voters to furnish paperwork not solely to show their very own citizenship but additionally that of their mother and father violates Article 326. Failing to satisfy these necessities might result in their names being excluded from the draft electoral roll and even eliminated altogether.

It’s contended that the ECI has set an unreasonable and impractical timeline for finishing up the SIR in Bihar, particularly given its proximity to the state elections scheduled for November 2025. There are lakhs of residents whose names weren’t on the 2003 electoral rolls and who lack the paperwork demanded below the SIR order. Whereas some might be able to get hold of these paperwork, the quick deadline prescribed by the directive might stop them from doing so in time.

Bihar, a state marked by excessive ranges of poverty and migration, has a big inhabitants with out entry to important paperwork like beginning certificates or data of their mother and father. The petitioner estimated that greater than 3 crore voters, particularly these from marginalized teams resembling SCs, STs, and migrant staff, could possibly be disadvantaged of their proper to vote due to the strict necessities laid down within the SIR order. In accordance with the petition, current studies from Bihar, the place the SIR course of has already begun, point out that lakhs of voters from rural areas and marginalized communities don’t have the paperwork being demanded of them.

The petition has been filed by means of Advocate Prashant Bhushan.