Mahua Moitra petitions SC against Bihar electoral rolls revision, apprehends similar in Bengal

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra has petitioned the Supreme Court challenging the Election Commission of India (ECI) decision to order Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar, apprehending that such a second revision of the voters list could be replicated in West Bengal.

In her petition, filed through advocate Neha Rathi, Moitra claimed that she has information that the “said (SIR) exercise is stated to be replicated in West Bengal from August 2025 for which instructions have already been given to EROs”.

Not only did her petition challenge the ECI’s order directing the SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar, but the Trinamool Congress MP also demanded that the Supreme Court restrain the poll body from issuing similar orders for the SIR of electoral rolls in other states of the country.

The plea contended that it is for the “very first time in the country” that such an exercise is being conducted by the ECI, where electors whose names are already there in electoral rolls and who have already voted multiple times in the past are being asked to prove their eligibility. It added that if the June 26 order issued by the ECI directing SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar is not set aside, it will result in large-scale disenfranchisement of eligible voters, affecting democracy and free and fair elections.

“The impugned SIR order requires the inclusion or retention of a voter’s name in the electoral roll upon production of citizenship documents, including proof of citizenship of either or both the parents, failing which the voter is at risk of exclusion. This requirement is ultra vires Article 326 of the Constitution and introduces extraneous qualifications not contemplated under the Constitution or the Representation of People (RP) Act, 1950,” said the plea.

It added that the June 26 order is illegal as it presumes ineligibility of a voter unless otherwise proved by way of providing documents (from a limited list of 11 documents) for self as well as documents of mother or father or both, and thus, ultra vires the Registration of Electors (RER) Rules, 1960.

“The said order arbitrarily excludes commonly accepted identity documents such as Aadhaar and ration cards from the list of accepted documents, thereby putting a huge burden on the voters who are at a huge risk of getting disenfranchised,” contended the petition.

Further, it said that lakhs of residents across rural and marginalised areas in Bihar are at imminent risk of disenfranchisement due to these stringent and unreasonable requirements.

As per the plea, the SIR requirement asking voters to again prove their eligibility through a set of documents is “absurd”, since on the basis of their existing eligibility, most of them have already voted multiple times in the Assembly as well as general elections.

The petition highlighted that the electoral rolls in Bihar have already undergone Special Summary Revision (SSR) between October 2024 and January 2025, which included updation and deletion of names based on deaths, migration, and other eligibility factors, and, thus, ECI’s decision to conduct a second revision in such a draconian manner in a poll-bound state is unjustified and unreasonable.

IANS