Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Aug 14: The Supreme Court on Thursday issued an interim order on the ongoing “Special Intensive Revision” (SIR) exercise in Bihar directing the Election Commission of India (ECI) to publish an enumerated, booth wise list of all the 65 lakh odd electors excluded from the draft electoral roll published on August 1.
A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi instructed the list should be complete with the individual reasons – death, migration, untraceability, duplicate registrations – for each exclusion on the draft roll.
It said the names of 65 lakh people removed from the voter list in Bihar must be uploaded on the Election Commission websites along with the reason for deletion by Tuesday. The court also said this list must be publicised so that every voter can access it.
“If, according to you, 22 lakh of the 65 lakh non-included voters are dead, why are their names not being disclosed? There is a narrative doing the rounds that family members do not know their kin have been left out as dead in the draft roll. If you put out the names in the public domain for all to see, that narrative disappears… In short, we want a ‘Poonam Devi’s’ family in Bihar to know that her name has been deleted because she is dead,” Justice Kant addressed the Election Commission of India (ECI), represented by senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi.
The Court upheld the voters’ “right to know” and to preserve their Constitutional right to remain on the electoral roll in a democracy. “People have a right to know. A high degree of transparency is required to inspire voters’ confidence. Put up the names of excluded electors with reasons out there in the public domain for all to see,” Justice Bagchi addressed advocate Rakesh Dwivedi.
In an equally significant development, the Supreme Court also said all those whose names have been struck off the state’s voter lists can submit their Aadhaar cards to challenge this deletion. Earlier, the Election Commission had resisted accepting Aadhaar, arguing that while it may be a proof of identity, it is not a valid proof of citizenship. It is unclear if Aadhaar will be an eligible document for Special Intensive Revision exercises of voter lists in other states. For now, it is an option for those whose names were struck off the list in poll-bound Bihar.
The 65 lakh names, out of 7.89 lakh registered electors in Bihar, were dropped from the draft roll despite the fact that their names had featured in the voters’ list prepared after a summary revision, merely months ago, in January 2025.
The ECI has been conducting the SIR of voter lists ahead of the assembly elections in Bihar. But, the exercise has run into controversy with the opposition up in arms against it. As the row escalated, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi passed the order while hearing pleas challenging the June 24 decision by the Election Commission (EC) to conduct the electoral roll revision.
The bench suggested that the EC should upload the enumerated list of all the people excluded from voter lists with the reason for their non-inclusion, as this will help affected parties to take action.
The SC asked the poll body to obtain a compliance report from all the district returning officers. “In addition, the booth-wise list of these 65 lakh voters shall be displayed by BLOs in their offices, in their panchayat offices. The public shall have manual access to this list too,” the court said. It, however, appreciated the EC’s revision exercise. “We appreciate you’re going to the grassroots level,” it added.
Hearing petitions challenging the SIR, Justice Surya Kant noted that the Election Commission has said 22 lakh people out of the 65 lakh names struck off the list have died. “If 22 lakh people have died, why is it not disclosed at the booth level? We do not want citizens’ rights to be dependent on political parties,” he observed
In its order, the bench said, “We have briefly heard the Election Commission of India. During the course of hearing , the following steps are agreed: ECI will, as interim measure, take following steps: list of 65 lakhs voters whose names appeared in 2025 list but are not included in the draft list shall be displayed on the district level websites.”
This list, the order said, must also mention the reason for deletion from the draft roll. “Wide publicity shall be given in vernacular language newspapers which has maximum circulation and it must be broadcast and telecast on Doordarshan and other channels. The district election officer, if they have a social media handle, shall display the notice there as well,” it said.
“Aggrieved persons may submit their claims along with a copy of their Aadhaar cards. In addition, the booth-wise list of 65 lakh voters shall also be displayed on the noticeboard of all the panchayat bhawans and the Block development and panchayat offices so that people have manual access to the list,” Justice Kant read out.
Earlier, Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked how many voters’ names had been omitted in the draft list prepared after the Special Intensive Revision. Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the poll body, replied, “65 lakhs are not there, 22 lakhs are dead.”
Mr Dwivedi stressed that no name has been deleted and anyone who is alive but his/her name has been deleted from the list on the grounds of death can approach poll officials to get this rectified. “What we are asking is to be more transparent. We are saying that instead of this, put the entire data set on the website,” Justice Bagchi said. Justice Kant said political workers will have ideology, but “people must be able to independently check” their names online.
The bench said the complete data set must be online. “Anita Devi should know that if I go to this website, I will know how to get my name,” Justice Kant said. The court also said this list must be searchable and people should be able to access it by using their EPIC numbers. The case will be heard next on August 22.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), told the media, “The court has directed the Election Commission to advertise that they are going to accept the Aadhaar card in addition to the 11 documents they have specified.”
Earlier, Senior Advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi had flagged the exclusion of Aadhaar from eligible documents. The court had then pointed to Section 9 of the Aadhaar Act that clarifies that it is not proof of citizenship.
During hearing, Justice Bagchi said Aadhaar was a statutorily recognised document for identity and residence. When Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan said the poll body was not accepting Aadhaar, Justice Bagchi said, “No, no they have to.” Justice Kant added, “It is a statutory obligation. It has to be there.”
“Aadhaar is a statutorily recognised instrument of identity and residence. It can be submitted as a document,” Justice Bagchi observed. This is the first time the Court has formally directed the use of Aadhaar as a proof of identity and residence in the Bihar SIR exercise.
The ECI would compile proof of compliance from BLOs/DEOs and place on record before the Court a collated status report on August 22, the next date of hearing, at 2 p.m. The list and reasons should be searchable by typing in the EPIC number of the concerned voter.
The interim order would act as a precedent in future legal disputes regarding SIR exercises in other States.
The ECI initially resisted the Court’s decision in favour of transparency, saying it had BLOs and booth level agents (BLAs) working on the ground to assist the left-out voters and usher them back on the electoral roll. But the Court said the voters’ right to know about the deletion and their Constitutional entitlement to be on the electoral roll cannot be dependent on agents of political parties and booth officers.
“The way you [ECI] do your intensive revision has to be comfortable for the voters and not give them strain… For a migrant worker who has been deleted as dead, even if he is illiterate, his neighbours or friends would alert him,” Justice Bagchi observed. Justice Kant said voters should not be dependent on the will and convenience of the BLOs to know why they have been deleted from the roll.
“If the names and reasons of deletion are displayed, it would minimise manual interventions. People should not be dependent on political workers (BLAs) who have their own political ideology. Voters must have an independent right to check their status without recourse to either BLOs or BLAs,” Justice Kant remarked.
“For a migrant worker who has been deleted as dead, even if he is illiterate, his neighbours or friends would alert him… It is only fair to have a procedure that does not block a person from exercising his right to adult franchise. There are civil consequences involved here,” Justice Kant pointed out to the ECI.
Following are the steps the EC will have to take as per the SC order:
- Names of 65 lakh voters who appeared in the 2025 list but are not included in the draft voter list shall be displayed on the website of the district election commissioner.
- The list shall include the reason for non-inclusion in the draft voter list
- There shall be wide publicity in newspapers in vernacular language, Hindi and English. It should be broadcast on television and radio channels. If the district election officer has a social media handle, they shall display it there as well.
Posting the matter for August 22, the top court allowed people aggrieved by the deletion of their names to approach the poll officials along with their Aadhaar card.
On August 1, the reasons cited by the EC for non-inclusion of previously registered voters in the draft rolls included death (22.34 lakh), “permanently shifted/absent” (36.28 lakh) and “already enrolled (at more than one places)” (7.01 lakh).
