TNI Bureau: The Supreme Court upheld the power of the Election Commission of India to conduct Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, rejecting petitions challenging the exercise in Bihar.

A bench headed by Surya Kant observed that the process was in line with the constitutional mandate of free and fair elections and said the Election Commission had acted within its statutory powers. The court clarified that SIR is different from routine revision of electoral rolls.

The petitions, including one filed by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), had questioned the legality, scale and timeline of the Bihar revision exercise. Concerns were also raised over the removal of around 65 lakh voters from the draft rolls after they were identified as deceased, migrated or registered elsewhere.

Under the Bihar SIR exercise, voters whose names were absent from the 2002 or 2003 electoral rolls were required to establish ancestral linkage with persons listed in those records.