Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra Moves Supreme Court Against Electoral Roll Revision in Bihar, Seeks Injunction On Similar Orders Against Other States
Mahua Moitra, Member of Parliament from Krishnanagar constituency in West Bengal has moved Supreme Court docket in opposition to Election Fee’s order for Electoral Roll revision in Bihar.
The petition has sought a route to quash the Order dated 24.06.2025 issued by Election Fee of India (ECI) beneath which Particular Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar is being performed in violation of Articles 14, 19(1)(a), 21, 325, 326 of the Structure of India and provisions of Illustration of Folks (RP) Act, 1950 and Registration of Electors (RER) Guidelines, 1960.
The petitioner has additionally sought a route from restraining Election Fee of India from issuing comparable orders for Particular Intensive Revision of Electoral Roll in different states of the nation.
The petition states that it could result in large-scale disenfranchisement of eligible voters within the nation thereby undermining democracy and free and honest elections within the nation.
It’s acknowledged within the plea that it’s for the very first time within the nation that such an train is being performed by ECI, the place electors whose names are already there in electoral rolls and who’ve already voted a number of instances in are being requested to show their eligibility.
The impugned order requires the inclusion or retention of a voter’s identify within the electoral roll upon manufacturing of citizenship paperwork, together with proof of citizenship of both or each the mother and father, failing which the voter is prone to exclusion.
As per the petitioner this requirement is extremely vires Article 326 and introduces extraneous {qualifications} not contemplated by the Structure or the RP Act 1950.
The petitioner submitted that;
“The stated order arbitrarily excludes generally accepted identification paperwork comparable to Aadhaar and ration playing cards from the listing of accepted paperwork thereby placing enormous burden on the voters who’re at an enormous danger of getting disenfranchised. Present discipline reviews from Bihar verify that lakhs of residents throughout rural and marginalised areas in Bihar are at imminent danger of disenfranchisement because of these stringent and unreasonable necessities”.
It’s additional alleged that the order disproportionately impacts economically and socially weak communities and resemble the construction and penalties of the Nationwide Register of Residents (NRC), which has been broadly critiqued.
“Paragraph 13 of the impugned order expressly mandates that failure to submit contemporary enumeration kinds by 25.07.2025 shall end in exclusion from the draft roll, with out sufficient procedural safety. That the SIR of electoral roll in as far as it requires voters to once more show their eligibility as voters by way of a set of paperwork can be absurd, since on the idea of their present eligibility most present voters have already voted a number of instances in state in addition to basic elections
Additionally it is submitted that the unreasonable timeline successfully forecloses the potential for compliance for individuals who might in any other case be capable to procure the required paperwork. The petitioner has data that the stated train is acknowledged to be replicated in West Bengal from August 2025 for which directions have already been given to EROs.
