SC upholds constitutionality of Election Commission’s special intensive revision; rules it does not determine citizenship
NEW DELHI: In a landmark judgment with far-reaching implications for electoral integrity, the Supreme Court of India has upheld the constitutional validity of the Election Commission’s (EC) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi emphasised that the foundation of a robust democracy rests not just on the act of polling, but on the absolute reliability, accuracy, and comprehensiveness of the electoral rolls. The apex court clarified that while the EC holds the mandate to verify credentials for maintaining clean voter lists, its findings do not equate to a final adjudication on an individual's citizenship—a power that vests strictly with the Union Government.
Addressing a bunch of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) filed by a coalition of opposition parties and civil society groups—including the Indian National Congress, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Samajwadi Party (SP), and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)—the Court dismissed the contention that prior inclusion in an electoral roll immunizes a voter from subsequent verification. The bench ruled that the EC is legally empowered to exclude names or withhold new registrations if legitimate discrepancies arise regarding identity documents. However, the Court placed a strict caveat on this exercise, noting: "The Election Commission possesses only limited jurisdiction regarding citizenship verification, exercised strictly to ensure the fidelity of the electoral roll. An exclusion from the voter list cannot be construed as a formal declaration that a person is not an Indian citizen." The ruling is expected to significantly impact ongoing voter list disputes across several states, including Kerala, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh, where mass deletions under the SIR had drawn political ire.
The Supreme Court accepted the Election Commission’s submission that intensive revisions were imperative, noting that in several jurisdictions, such an exercise was being conducted after nearly four decades. The EC argued that massive demographic shifts over the last forty years—driven by rapid urbanization, voter migration, mortalities, the emergence of new eligible voters, and the proliferation of duplicate entries—necessitated a thorough cleanup.
The Court affirmed that the power to execute the SIR is firmly rooted in Article 324 of the Indian Constitution and Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act. Far from being a mere administrative routine, the bench categorised the SIR as a vital mechanism to achieve the constitutional mandate of free and fair elections.
To prevent arbitrary disenfranchisement, the Supreme Court established a time-bound redressal mechanism, focusing specifically on Bihar, where the electoral rolls were last comprehensively revised in 2003. The EC has been directed to submit the data of all individuals purged from the Bihar voter lists to the Central Government within four weeks. The apex court mandated that the Union Government must issue formal notices to the affected individuals, grant them a fair hearing, and pass a definitive ruling on their citizenship status ahead of the upcoming elections. Should the Central Government verify these individuals as bona fide Indian citizens, the Election Commission must immediately restore their names to the electoral rolls.