Supreme Court seeks ECI response to petitions against SIR in TN, WB but asks petitioners "why so apprehensive?"

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the response of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to a batch of six petitions challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being undertaken in the States of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

While SIR in Tamil Nadu has been challenged before the top court by the ruling DMK party, CPI(M) and Congress party, the exercise in West Bengal has been assailed by the State unit of Congress party.

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi today issued notice to the ECI on all the petitions but at the same time, also asked the petitioners why they were so apprehensive about the exercise.

"Why are you people so apprehensive," Justice Kant asked the petitioners while issuing notice to ECI.

The Court also told the petitioners that if the Bench is satisfied, it will annul the exercise.

This was after Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for DMK, alleged that the exercise was being undertaken in tearing hurry unlike before when it used to take three years to revise the electoral rolls.

"This never used to happen before. It took 3 years earlier. Now they (ECI) are saying one month. Ultimately, lakhs of people are going to be excluded," Sibal said.

"You file your counter affidavit. We are issuing notice. If we are satisfied, we will annul the exercise. We are issuing notice in all the writ petitions," the Court said.

The Court is already seized of a plea challenging SIR in Bihar.

The ECI had first directed a Special Intensive Revision in June 2025 for Bihar. Multiple petitions, including those filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the National Federation for Indian Women (NFIW), are already pending before the Supreme Court challenging that order.

Despite those challenges being sub-judice, the ECI on October 27 2025 extended the SIR to other States and Union Territories, including Tamil Nadu.

The petition, filed by RS Bharathi, Organising Secretary of the DMK and former Rajya Sabha member, has sought quashing of the ECI’s orders dated October 27 which extended the SIR to Tamil Nadu based on earlier guidelines issued on June 24 this year.

According to the plea, the orders by ECI are unconstitutional, beyond the powers of the Election Commission, and contrary to the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (ROPA) and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

As per the petition, the SIR violates Articles 14, 19, 21, 325 and 326 of the Constitution and could result in the mass disenfranchisement of genuine voters.

It was pointed out that Tamil Nadu already completed a Special Summary Revision (SSR) between October 2024 and January 2025, during which the voter list was updated to include new electors and delete ineligible names.

That list has been continuously updated since and does not warrant another full-scale verification.

According to the DMK, the SIR guidelines empower the Election Commission to verify the citizenship status of individuals, a function that lies solely with the Union Government under the Citizenship Act, 1955.

The petitions from West Bengal also echoed similar concerns.

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for DMK, questioned the timing of the SIR.

"The situation in different States is different. This monsoon season in TN there would be a lot of rain. That might not be in other States. It’s always heavy during November and December. It is not uniform across the country. The BLOs etc will have to manage the flood relief as well. December January is harvest season too in TN. Time is not conducive. Christmas vacations will also be declared there might be minimum participation in enumeration process. This may not be relevant in other States," it was submitted.

He also raised apprehensions about the timeline and the lack of details when it comes to the exercise.

"There are areas where there is no connectivity at all. Where you going to upload all these things. We don’t have any timeline for submission of documents, who will serve the notice, what format will the notice be, what format etc. Nothing is specified," Sibal said.

"Why are you people so apprehensive? They’ll have to answer. They’ll do it," Justice Kant said.

Sibal then questioned the tearing hurry in completing the process in one month.

"The process has started. Previously, at least during the exercise, notice was given. Now they have changed that process. Lakhs of forms cannot be digitised before the publication. This is ultimately going to be a farcical exercise. Why this great hurry, we don’t understand," Sibal said.

He also maintained that SIR should not be an adversarial exercise.

"This is not an adversarial exercise. But what we see down the road it’s like that. We are giving suggestions. It cannot happen in one month. Bengal is much worse. There is no connectivity. There is no 5G no 4G," he contended.

"You people want to project as if voter list is being prepared for the first time in the country," Justice Kant said.

Sibal then said that the revision of electoral rolls used to take three years earlier and not one month.

Eventually, the Court asked the ECI to file its response to all the fresh petitions challenging SIR in TN and West Bengal.

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