EC Defends Bihar SIR Exercise As Accurate, Dismisses Allegations Of Voter Deletion Bias

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday defended the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar's electoral rolls, describing the process as "accurate" and dismissing the allegations raised by political parties and NGOs as baseless attempts to discredit the exercise.

In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, the poll body asserted that since the publication of the final electoral roll, no appeals have been lodged by any voter challenging deletions, an indication, it argued, of the integrity of the revision process.

A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi noted the absence of political party representatives from the hearing, citing ongoing election rallies in the poll-bound state. Nonetheless, the court urged the Commission to address any typographical errors or inaccuracies in the final roll and to take necessary corrective steps as a responsible authority.

Seeking the dismissal of petitions that question the EC’s June 24 decision to undertake the Bihar SIR, the Commission alleged that the petitioners, i.e., political entities and public interest organisations, were driven by "ulterior motives" and had opted to level "false allegations" for electoral gain.

According to the affidavit, aside from appointing Booth Level Agents (BLAs), political parties and civil society groups had made "no substantial contribution" to ensuring the inclusion of all eligible voters during the revision.

"The approach of the political parties and the petitioners has been to accuse the ECI and attempt to point out errors in the SIR exercise," the Commission stated. "In contrast, the ECI not only appointed more than 90,000 BLOs (Booth Level Officers), but also involved political parties and got BLAs appointed. The exercise was conducted on an H2H (house-to-house) basis involving more than one visit. All relevant data was uploaded on the websites."

The Commission noted that even with the assistance of the State Legal Services Authority, the number of objections and correction requests remained low, reinforcing its claim that the process was conducted effectively. “This indicates that the SIR exercise was accurate. Even after the determination of the objections and deletion of approximately 3.66 lakh individuals from the final electoral roll, no appeal has been reported as of now,” the affidavit stated.

Addressing allegations made by the Association for Democratic Reforms and activist Yogendra Yadav regarding the disproportionate exclusion of Muslim voters, citing figures of 25 percent among the 65 lakh excluded from the draft roll and 34 percent among the 3.66 lakh ultimately removed, the EC challenged the methodology used.

"This communal approach is to be deprecated. The electoral rolls database does not capture any information on religion of any elector..." the affidavit stated. It added that those 65 lakh names were excluded because individuals either failed to submit enumeration forms, had died, moved permanently, or had duplicate entries in other constituencies.

During the proceedings, advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the petitioners, argued for greater transparency. He urged the Commission to disclose the number of deletions and the criteria used during the revision.

The court, while scheduling the next hearing for November 4 to address legal questions, expressed confidence in the EC’s ability to conduct elections in a fair and efficient manner. It also took note of the timeline for the upcoming Bihar elections, with the electoral roll set to be frozen on October 17 for the first phase and October 20 for the second phase.

The Commission further contended that the need for the SIR exercise was evident, pointing out that up until 2022, the number of registered voters in Bihar had exceeded the projected total population, an anomaly justifying the revision, especially since the last such exercise was carried out in 2003.

Responding to concerns raised by petitioners over the limited timeframe and adverse conditions such as floods and low literacy levels, the Commission dismissed these as "incorrect and misconceived".

"The reference to high degree of illiteracy of people in the state of Bihar, numerous districts being flooded, and therefore, SIR exercise would lead to mass disenfranchisement due to inability of electors to furnish documents sought under the SIR order dated June 24, 2025 was also misconceived, incorrect and erroneous," it said.

With PTI inputs