Indian Election Commission Caught In A Cleft Stick Between Supreme Court And Government On Electoral Roll – Analysis

P. K. Balachandran

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The Election Commission of India (ECI) is caught in a cleft stick between the Supreme Court and the government on the issue of exclusion from the voters’ list ahead of the November 2025 elections to the Bihar State Assembly.The government may insist that the ECI adheres to the parameters set for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral roll. But the Supreme Court had asked the ECI to consider including the Aadhaar and Voter Identity Cards for determining eligibility for inclusion in the voters’ list, documents which the government and ECI consider insufficient for proving citizenship.

With petitioners in the court estimating that about 940,000 voters in Bihar will be facing disenfranchisement as a result of the SIR, the Supreme Court had warned the ECI that it would “step in if mass exclusion takes place”. The court said on Tuesday that the ECI is a constitutional body that has to abide by the law.The Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, asked the petitioners to file their written submissions by August 8 and stated that hearings will take place on August 12 and August 13.

Earlier on Monday, the court reiterated its demand that the ECI accept the Aadhaar and Voter Identity Cards as admissible documents. But the ECI argued that the Aaadhar, Voter ID and Ration Cards could not be proof of “citizenship” a basic condition for voting. The court’s answer to this was that while Ration Cards could be forged easily, Aadhaar and Voter ID Cards had “some sanctity” and had the presumption of genuineness.

“You continue accepting these documents,” the court added. 940,000 Could Face Exclusion According to one of the petitioners, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), about 940,000 out of the 76 million electorate in Bihar are likely to lose their right to vote as they had not been counted in the SIR either due to their absence from Bihar or because they had not submitted any of the 11 documents needed to be given as proof of eligibility.