SC Sets Oct 7 Hearing on Bihar SIR

A two-judge bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi refused to give a “piecemeal opinion” on the matter and said, “Our judgment in the Bihar SIR will be applicable pan-India.”

The court clarified that it could not prevent the Election Commission from conducting similar revision exercises across the country, but allowed petitioners challenging the Bihar SIR to also argue on the pan-India exercise on October 7.

The bench further noted that the publication of the final electoral roll on September 30 would not affect the adjudication. “What difference will the final publication make to us? If we are satisfied there is illegality, we can set it aside,” the bench told petitioners.

The court also issued notice on a plea seeking recall of its September 8 order directing the Election Commission to include Aadhaar as the 12th prescribed document in the Bihar SIR.

Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the Commission, urged the bench to defer the hearing until the final assessment of the SIR. However, senior advocate Gopal Sankarnarayanan, for NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, argued that the exercise risked perverting the constitutional scheme if allowed to proceed in other states.

Advocate Vrinda Grover, representing activists, stressed that no one should be denied the right to vote due to an illegal methodology. The bench assured: “If we find any illegality in the methodology adopted by the ECI at any stage in Bihar, the entire exercise will be set aside.”

Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for opposition parties including the Congress, requested the court to take up the matter urgently, as the ECI had already announced the SIR nationwide. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, for the RJD, alleged that the Commission was acting in gross violation of its own rules, noting that only 30% of objections and requests for additions had been uploaded online despite a one-day requirement.

The bench reiterated that the ECI, as a constitutional authority, was presumed to follow the law and mandated rules. Justice Kant said the matter would be heard in full detail on October 7.

Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay submitted that Aadhaar should not be considered for the exercise, citing earlier Supreme Court rulings that it was not proof of age, residence, or citizenship. He argued that Aadhaar can even be issued to foreigners on the recommendation of a village pramukh, MLA, or MP. The bench said Aadhaar’s acceptance was only an interim arrangement and would hear his plea on October 7.

The Election Commission informed the bench that political parties and NGOs had not been assisting voters in filing claims and objections, while para-legal volunteers (PLVs) had filed over 3,000 online claims in the past fortnight. Justice Kant, citing a NALSA report, noted that 3,311 claims, objections, or corrections had been filed since September 1, of which 1,027 had been resolved with PLV assistance.

Earlier, on September 1, the apex court termed the Bihar SIR confusion “largely a trust issue” and directed the state legal services authority to deploy PLVs to assist voters and political parties.

The SIR, Bihar’s first since 2003, has sparked a major political row, with opposition parties alleging that the exercise is intended to deprive people of their right to vote. The Election Commission has maintained that the SIR’s objective is to clean the rolls by removing duplicate entries, names of the deceased, and illegal immigrants.

The SIR’s findings reduced Bihar’s voter count from 7.9 crore to 7.24 crore.