TMC's Mahua Moitra(L), Election Commission office in Delhi.
Credit: PTI Photos
New Delhi: Peoples Union for Civil liberties, TMC MP Mahua Moitra and activist Yogendra Yadav have filed separate petitions in the Supreme Court, challenging the arbitrary and unlawful action of the Election Commission of India in directing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the entire country, with immediate enforcement in Bihar, only months before the scheduled elections.
Bihar's main opposition party through its Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Kumar Jha also filed a similar plea questioning validity of the decision.
PUCL through its general secretary V Suresh contended SIR process represented a direct assault on India's constitutional democracy, violating the grundnorm of popular sovereignty. By abandoning statutory house-to-house surveys for arbitrary document- centred exclusions, creating impossible timelines, and systematically, disenfranchising marginalized communities, the Election Commission has perverted constitutional mandate, and inverted the principle of inclusion to that of exclusion.
"The SIR process has within it conceptual and procedural chaos which violates Articles 14, 19, and 21, transforming universal adult suffrage from a fundamental right into a privilege contingent on bureaucratic compliance by so called unverified “volunteers” who have been converted into data processors," the plea said.
It contended the process undermined democracy's foundational principle that legitimate governance derives from the consent of all citizens, not just those who can navigate exclusionary administrative mazes.
"An illegal exercise, also hastily conducted to cover a population of almost 8 crore is likely to result in exclusion of voters and thereby defeat democracy using the very tools of democracy," it said.
Moitra, in her plea, contended it was for the very first time in the country that such an exercise is being conducted by the EC where electors whose names are already there in the electoral roll and who have voted multiple times are being asked to prove their eligibility.
The requirement to provide citizenship documents is ultra vires Article 326 of the Constitution and introduces extraneous qualifications not contemplated under the Representation of People Act, her plea contended.
Earlier, NGO Association for Democratic Reforms has also filed a similar plea, seeking a direction to set aside June 24, 2025 communication issued by the Election Commission, directing for special intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar.