The Supreme Court on Thursday probed the Election Commission’s upcoming voter list revision in Bihar, asking why such an exercise was tied to the assembly elections. The court questioned the rationale of linking the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) to polls rather than treating it as a routine constitutional obligation they asked, “Why are you connecting the Special Intensive Revision to the elections? Why can’t it be irrespective of elections?”

Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi further noted that if this exercise aimed to verify citizenship, delaying it until now seemed peculiar: “If the objective of the SIR is to verify citizenship, then the Commission should have acted earlier,” they observed. The bench also flagged that citizen eligibility criteria to the Ministry of Home Affairs, not the EC a reminder of authority boundaries in electoral matters.

The EC has relied on Article 326 of the Constitution, stating it mandates enrolment for citizens aged 18+ as voters, reinforcing that the revision is legally grounded. Critics including one petition from ADR warn that limiting presumption of citizenship to those on pre-2003 rolls could disenfranchise up to half of Bihar's electorate. Opposition voices like Prashant Kishor have called the revision a “trap with useless documents”, questioning why a list drawn up for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections now requires overhaul.

As the Supreme Court is set to hear the petitions today, all eyes are on whether it will halt the SIR, declare it constitutional, or oblige the EC to address procedural and jurisdictional constraints before proceeding.