SC to begin hearing pleas challenging EC's decision to conduct pan-India SIR on Nov 10

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to commence hearing pleas challenging the Election Commission's decision to conduct pan-India Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls on Tuesday.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, which is scheduled to commence hearing pleas challenging the poll panel’s decision on the pan-India Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, said any fresh matter needs to be mentioned for listing before Chief Justice of India B R Gavai.

"We are only seized of Bihar SIR matters and any fresh petition with regard to other states needs to be mentioned for listing before the Chief Justice of India. We don't know whether other matters will also be allocated to us. It all depends on the CJI," the bench told the counsel appearing for the West Bengal unit of Congress seeking urgent listing of a plea filed by the party.

The West Bengal Congress and leaders of other political parties in the state have moved the apex court challenging the Election Commission's decision on SIR of electoral rolls.

Sources said Trinamool Congress MP Dola Sen has also challenged the decision to conduct the SIR exercise in Bihar.

On Tuesday, the top court is also scheduled to hear a plea of the DMK challenging the decision of the Election Commission (EC) to conduct the exercise in Tamil Nadu.

The CPI-M has also moved the apex court challenging the constitutional validity of the EC's directive to conduct the SIR exercise in Tamil Nadu, terming the process "arbitrary, illegal, and unconstitutional".

Meanwhile, the AIADMK has filed an application supporting the poll panel's decision to conduct the exercise in Tamil Nadu, calling it a "legitimate and necessary" exercise to uphold the sanctity of elections and prevent voter fraud.

On November 7, the top court agreed to hear pleas challenging the EC's decision to conduct pan-India SIR of electoral rolls on November 11.

A bench headed by Justice Surya Kant said it will start hearing the pleas from November 11 onwards.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), had sought urgent hearing in the matter, saying the issue goes to the root of democracy.

The top court is already hearing pleas challenging the validity of the poll panel's decision to conduct the SIR exercise in Bihar.

On October 16, the EC termed the Bihar SIR "accurate" and told the apex court that the petitioner political parties and NGOs are merely content with making "false allegations" to discredit the exercise.

The poll body also told the top court that not a single appeal has been filed by any voter against name deletion since the publication of the final electoral roll for Bihar.

It denied the allegation of the petitioners that there was a "disproportionate exclusion of Muslims" from the final electoral roll of the state prepared after the months-long SIR exercise.

On September 30, the EC, while publishing the final electoral list for poll-bound Bihar, said the total number of electors has come down by nearly 47 lakh to 7.42 crore in the final roll from 7.89 crore before the SIR exercise.

The final figure increased by 17.87 lakh from 7.24 crore electors named in the draft list issued on August 1, which removed 65 lakh voters from the original list on various accounts, including deaths, migration and duplication of voters.

While 21.53 lakh new electors were added to the draft list, 3.66 lakh names were removed, resulting in a net increase of 17.87 lakh.

The first phase of elections in Bihar on 121 seats was held on November 6, while the remaining 122 constituencies will go to polls on Tuesday. The counting of votes will take place on November 14.

On October 27, the Election Commission announced the conduct of phase two of the SIR exercise in 12 states and Union territories between November and February next year.

The states and UTs are: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Among these, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and West Bengal will go to the polls in 2026.

The poll panel said that for Assam, where polls are due in 2026, the revision of electoral rolls will be announced separately.

Phase two of the SIR exercise began on November 4 and will continue till December 4. The EC will release the draft electoral rolls on December 9, and the final electoral rolls will be published on February 7.