Supreme Court on Nov 11, 2025, allowed AIADMK's application to intervene in support of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu.
Directed Madras and Calcutta High Courts to keep in abeyance all challenges to SIR in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal until further orders.
Election Commission must file response within two weeks to separate pleas by DMK, West Bengal Congress, and TMC opposing the SIR exercise.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the AIADMK's intervention application supporting the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Tamil Nadu and directed the Madras and Calcutta High Courts to keep in abeyance proceedings on pleas challenging the SIR in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has been asked to file its response within two weeks to separate petitions filed by the DMK, West Bengal Congress, and Trinamool Congress (TMC) challenging the SIR process in the two states.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan passed the order while hearing a batch of petitions raising concerns over the ongoing voter list revision, which opponents term a "disenfranchisement drive" targeting specific communities.
AIADMK, through senior advocate Balaji Srinivasan, argued that SIR is a routine ECI exercise to ensure clean electoral rolls and should not be politicised. The party sought to counter DMK's claim that the process violates voter rights in Tamil Nadu.
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The court also noted parallel challenges pending in the Madras HC (DMK vs ECI) and Calcutta HC (TMC & Congress vs ECI), directing status quo on those proceedings to avoid conflicting orders.
ECI counsel informed the bench that SIR, covering 51 crore voters across 12 states/UTs, is being conducted transparently with booth-level agents from all parties. The Commission assured no eligible voter will be deleted without due process.
The matter is posted for further hearing after three weeks.
SIR, last held in 2002 in some states, involves house-to-house verification using unique enumeration forms. Tamil Nadu (6.2 crore voters) and West Bengal (7.6 crore) are among key states under Phase 2, with final rolls due in February 2026 ahead of assembly polls.
