Supreme Court Upholds ECI's SIR

The India — Supreme Court of India>>>, on May 27, upheld the India — Election Commission of India>>>'s (ECI) authority to conduct a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant>>> and Justice Joymalya Bagchi>>> ruled that the SIR exercise is constitutional and legally tenable, aimed at strengthening free and fair elections by ensuring accurate and inclusive voter lists. The court rejected arguments from petitioners, including the Association for Democratic Reforms>>> and the National Federation of Indian Women>>>, who claimed the process was arbitrary and exceeded the ECI's powers. The ruling clarified that the ECI has the power to examine citizenship issues for voter registration purposes, but not to make final determinations on citizenship status. Cases of doubtful citizenship leading to deletion from rolls must be referred to the competent authority under the Citizenship Act. The SIR process was initially launched in India — Bihar>>> and later extended to states like India — West Bengal>>>, India — Kerala>>>, and India — Tamil Nadu>>>.