Supreme Court upholds ECI’s SIR exercise, says it strengthens free and fair elections

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, saying the exercise “advances the constitutional imperative of free and fair elections”.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant said the poll panel had acted within its statutory powers while carrying out the voter list revision exercise.

“We are unable to conclude that the impugned exercise is a process resorted to solely for administrative convenience. On the contrary, we hold that the electoral SIR advances the constitutional imperative of free and fair elections,” the bench said.

The verdict came on petitions challenging the Election Commission’s powers to conduct the SIR exercise under Article 326 of the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act, 1950. The pleas included one filed by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The Bihar SIR exercise had triggered controversy after the Election Commission said around 65 lakh names were removed from the draft electoral rolls. Under the process, voters whose names did not appear in the 2002 or 2003 electoral rolls were asked to establish ancestral linkage with someone listed in those records.

Petitioners argued that the exercise had turned into an “NRC-like process” involving citizenship verification, which they said falls under the Centre’s jurisdiction. Defending the revision drive, the Election Commission told the court that Aadhaar and voter identity cards cannot be treated as conclusive proof of citizenship.

The Supreme Court had reserved its verdict on January 29 after hearing final arguments in the matter.

With PTI inputs