Bihar Electoral Revision Could Disenfranchise Three Crore Voters: ADR Moves Supreme Court

Association for Democratic Reforms, an NGO headed by Prashant Bhushan, on Saturday challenged Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) revision of electoral roll in Bihar ahead of the state’s assembly election. In a writ filed before India’s Supreme Court, ADR said the SIR violated the “right to vote of lakhs of voters.”

“As per estimates over three crore voters and more particularly from marginalised communities (such as SC, STs and migrant workers) could be excluded from voting due to the stringent requirements as mentioned in the SIR order. That the current reports from Bihar, where SIR is already underway, show that lakhs of voters from villages and marginalised communities do not possess the documents as being sought for them,” the petition said.

The petition was filed on Saturday before the apex court, and will be mentioned on Monday for listing.

While the ECI has said the revision is needed in order to counter effects of migration and urbanisation to weed out ineligible voters, Opposition parties and other rights bodies have alleged it will adversely affect voters by removing genuine voters from the rolls. 

In its petition before the SC, ADR said that the ECI’s timeline for electoral reforms in Bihar was “unreasonable and impractical” as it was just ahead of the states November 2025 Assembly elections. “There are lakhs of citizens (whose names did not appear in 2003 ER) who do not possess the documents as required under the SIR order, there are many who may be able to procure the documents but the short timeline mentioned in directive may preclude them from being able to supply the same within the time period,” the petition pointed out.

ADR has asked the apex court to set aside the SIR order. "The SIR order, dated 24th June 2025, if not set aside, can arbitrarily and without due process disenfranchise lakhs of voters from electing their representatives, thereby disrupting free and fair elections and democracy in the country, which are part of basic structure of the Constitution,” it said.

Acknowledging that a SIR in Bihar “or any other state” is a “positive step” the ADR said that the ECI’s move to order one at this time “has raised questions from all stakeholders, particularly the voters.”

The ADR’s petition also rubbished the ECI’s June 24, 2025 order claiming that “rapid urbanisation, frequent migration, young citizens becoming eligible to vote, non-reporting of deaths and inclusion of the names of foreign illegal immigrants.”

ADR pointed out that the ECI had previously conducted two Special Summary Revisions (SSR) between October 29, 2024 and January 6, 2025 that addressed the issues brought on by migration and ineligible voters due to death or other reasons. “Thus, there is no reason for such a drastic exercise in a poll bound state in such a short period of time, violating right to vote of lakhs of voters,” said ADR’s petition.

The petition also said, that the ECI’s order was “arbitrary” as the reasons given were not “supported by any evidence or transparent methodology,” adding that “the requirement of citizenship documents contravenes the requirement of specific grounds for deletion of names from electoral rolls (e.g., death, non-residence, or disqualification under Section 16 of RPA, 1950).”

The ECI’s SIR in Bihar started on June 28, 2025, and is the first intensive revision since 2003. It is scheduled to finish on September 30, and will publish updated voter rolls just ahead of Bihar’s November Assembly elections. 

The Opposition parties have alleged that the timing of the revision is subversive method to disenfranchise entire sections of the Bihar electorate ahead of the state elections in a manner that will favour the ruling alliance.