45,000 gibberish names, over 4 lakh with house number '0': Yogendra Yadav to Supreme Court on Bihar SIR final list

Political activist and psephologist Yogendra Yadav on Thursday submitted before the Supreme Court that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar has led to the largest-ever exclusion of voters in India's history.

Yadav made the submission before the Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi during the hearing of a batch of petitions challenging the legality of the SIR, which has already been completed in Bihar ahead of the State assembly elections this November.

He said that the SIR was used a weapon for systemic, structural and targeted exclusion.

"Voters lists need improvement and no one says ECI cannot do it and plus they have a duty to do it. It is the nature of revision in question. This special intensive revision has weaponised a benign process. First weapon is systemic exclusion. Then comes structural exclusion and then possibility of targeted exclusion," Yadav told the Bench, while addressing it at the end of today's hearing.

Yadav added that voter lists across the country are judged by completeness, accuracy and equity. On all these three counts, we have a very serious problem, he told the Court.

"We are on completeness part of it. SIR has led to largest every shrinkage of electoral roll. 47 lakh is the shrinkage that has happened. In the history, never. See the adult population of Bihar. These are estimates by the expert group of Central government. In September 2025, it was 8 crore 22 lakh. When SIR began, roll was 7.89 lakh," he submitted.

On the SIR undertaken in Bihar, Yadav further said,

"About 20 percent of the forms were filled by the Booth Level Officers (BLOs). If this was not done, the number of exclusion would have been 2 crore and not 65 lakh. But this solution may not lie in other states."

At this stage, Justice Bagchi remarked that mostly the well-off are averse to the electoral process and that the ones at the grassroots level are much more enthusiastic to vote. Yadav agreed.

He also pointed out that the Election Commission of India (ECI) had followed 'Vanshavali' (family tree) route during the SIR.

"ECI did something great this time...they told their officers agar mataji pitaji nahi mil rahe toh chacha nana tau, jo mile, daal do...Will they follow this in other states also? Merely 40 percent of electorate did not file any of the 11 documents and it was only through the vanshavali route that they got onto the rolls."

Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the ECI, objected to the submission.

"What is all this? Is it on affidavit? This is not a lecture room!" he said.

Yadav responded that ECI can file an affidavit instead, adding that gains of 10 years in gender ratio was wiped out as a result of the Bihar SIR.

"Earlier, the number of women gap in electoral roll used to be 20 lakh and that became 7 lakhs in January this year. SIR made it 16 lakh again and I hope this does not happen across the country...wherever SIR goes, it will happen to women," he said.

He further highlighted problems with house number and duplication of voters in the final revised list.

"45,000 of gibberish names are there...there are house numbers with number as zero and about 4,21,000 such houses. Then some details in Tamil and Kannada. This is what I mean by gibberish. This is the roll on which elections will be held. Then I will come to duplication. Strict test shows 5.2 lakh names are duplicate names. In draft list, it was 4.90 lakh such names. We thought ECI will do corrections, but now 30,000 more names have been added. Does ECI have a de-duplication software at all?" he asked.

He also claimed that households with bulk of voters are also in the electoral record.

"Then it shows 21 lakh such households with bulk voters, which means each home with 10 such members who can vote. Now homes with 100 or such members - there are 4 lakh such homes. Then there is a house number 6 which has 800 plus members. But even now, 880 people still live in this house. I am only telling you about 10 such homes. ECI has also added 21 lakh names even when SIR did not allow it. New voters should be 18 to 19 years old. But here less than 20 percent of that age. 40 percent is of that bracket who are above 25 and there are 100 who are 100 years old and there are some who are 124 years old as per the final voter list."

At end of his submissions, Yadav said he would welcome such SIR across the country, if the "three such toxic elements" are removed.

Challenging Yadav's claims, ECI counsel said that his submissions "decry" the poorest of poor in the country.

"In 1980s I had spent time in Allahabad among the tribals. I had left my practice and had worked there and had gone to jail also pursuant to such demands. There were more than 3,000 tribals living on the land of Raja shankargarh and how to enroll them... That is why ECI entrusts such numbers. The submissions by Mr Yadav decry the poorest of the poor in the country," Dwivedi said.

The Court will hear the matter on August 16.