AS THE Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the Election Commission’s SIR of electoral rolls was constitutional, the Opposition parties, led by the Congress, said the verdict raised many questions. The petitioners who had challenged the exercise in court said the judgment had put a stamp of approval on the disenfranchisement of millions of electors in a “hurried” and “discriminatory” drive.
Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who is the chairman of All India Congress Committee Law, Human Rights and RTI Department, said the Supreme Court has given a judgment principally on the legal and constitutional validity of the SIR process but the challenge mounted by the Opposition was to “its operational reality… the lack of justice in the process, leading to a substantial denial”.
Singhvi raised several shortcomings on the part of the EC in conducting the exercise and said it was unfortunate that the Supreme Court made no comments on them.
“The SIR is always a matter of substance, never merely a matter of form. The issue was never about the power to conduct SIR. What was being questioned was the mode, manner, timing, and style in which it was being carried out,” he said.
“How were 7.5 crore people in several states of the country removed before a decision on their citizenship was even made? How was the right to vote of these millions of people stripped away by an institution that doesn’t even have that authority,” he asked.
Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh alleged the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government was facing “an unprecedented wave of anger and outrage for its complete and utter failures of governance” and, “unable to face the electorate in a fair contest”, it had “opted to manipulate the lists of who can and cannot vote to skew the balance in its favour”.
“Broadly speaking, this is what the SIR is for. It may have legal sanction but look at how it has been implemented. The story is the same in Bengal or Bihar. Voters are selectively deleted en masse and then made to face an appeals process that is arbitrary and ultimately meaningless” he said in a post on X.
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Reiterating its earlier stand on SIR, the AAP demanded a level-playing field and complete transparency in the exercise. A senior AAP leader from Punjab, where the SIR exercise is scheduled to take place ahead of the Assembly polls next year, said democracy could not survive if Constitutional bodies such as the EC acted in “a partisan manner”.
“The BJP wants to capture power in Punjab by manipulating voter lists and simultaneously weaken Punjab’s rights and institutions…,” the leader alleged.
Samajwadi Party MP and spokesperson Rajeev Rai said the SC judgment on SIR was “disappointing” for those who trust in democracy and the electoral process. “People look at the Supreme Court with hopes. SC’s silence on lots of people deprived (of voting rights) is an unfortunate situation,” he said.
Major General Anil Verma (retd), the head of the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), the first petitioner to challenge the SIR, said the judgment was “disappointing”.
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Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who was among the petitioners against the EC’s June 24, 2025 SIR order, said in a post on X: “SC’s Bihar SIR decision today puts a stamp of approval on ECI’s illogical, hurried & discriminatory practices that ultimately led to 27 lakh valid voters unable to vote after Bengal SIR & whose fate is still in limbo. Justice must be done & must also be seen to be done.”
The EC had started the SIR with Bihar in July last year, following it up with the implementation in nine other states, including West Bengal, and three Union Territories from November 2025. Earlier this month, the Poll panel announced the SIR schedule for 22 states/UTs.
Another petitioner, Swaraj India president Yogendra Yadav, said on X that he felt the case had been decided in August last year itself.
“The case was effectively decided when the apex court allowed the ECI to rush through the Bihar elections without first deciding the matter, and without requiring the ECI to rectify even the most glaring defects in post-SIR rolls… Shorn of legalese, the simple truth is that the highest court of a constitutional democracy has already authorised the disenfranchisement of millions of citizens — at least 59 million so far, could go up eventually to 100 million,” Yadav said.
