The Supreme Court on Tuesday, August 12, heard a series of petitions challenging the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar’s electoral rolls, with petitioners arguing that the poll body cannot shift the burden of proving citizenship onto voters.

The matter was taken up by a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymala Bagchi. Appearing for Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Kumar Jha, senior advocate Kapil Sibal contended that the exclusion of around 65 lakh voters from the draft electoral roll published on August 1, without any objections having been raised against their inclusion, was unlawful, Live Law reported.

He pointed out that many of the documents demanded by the ECI, such as birth certificates, matriculation certificates and passports, are held only by a small section of the population.

Justice Kant, however, observed that some form of identification is typically available to citizens, even for everyday requirements such as purchasing a SIM card, and asked whether most residents did not have Aadhaar or ration cards.

“There must be something to prove you are a citizen of India… everybody possesses some certificate – you need it even to buy a SIM. OBC, SC, ST certificates… It is a very sweeping argument that in Bihar, nobody possesses these documents. Aadhaar and ration card they have?” Justice Kant said.

Sibal responded that the ECI was refusing to accept Aadhaar, ration cards or even EPIC cards, which are widely possessed.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the Association for Democratic Reforms, criticised the ECI for failing to release the list of names of the 65 lakh voters deleted from the draft roll, and for not specifying whether these deletions were due to death or migration. He alleged that until August 4, the draft roll was searchable, but had since been made inaccessible.

“They say, go and ask the Booth Level Agent of the political party. Why should I, as a citizen, not know from their document and should ask an agent of the political party?” he argued.

Advocate Vrinda Grover questioned the legal basis of the ECI’s decision to restrict acceptable documents, calling it an “ultra vires exercise” beyond its authority.

“Where does the power of the ECI come? This is an ultra vires exercise. Where is the Parliamentary process to specify the 11 documents?” she asked.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi also challenged the refusal to accept Aadhaar and EPIC cards, warning against a blanket presumption that millions of voters were non-citizens.

“The presumption is that they are citizens unless established otherwise through a procedure in accordance with the law….If you declare 5 crore people to be not valid and give them 2.5 months,” he said.

Appearing in person, activist Yogendra Yadav argued that the exclusion of 65 lakh voters was a consequence of the SIR’s design rather than its faulty implementation. He noted that Bihar’s eligible voter percentage had already dropped to 88% after the draft was published, with more deletions expected.

“This is the first revision exercise in the whole country where there is zero addition and there are only omissions. The EC officers went from house to house. They did not find one single person who should have been included? This was an exercise of intensive deletion. This is not revision,” he said.

Yadav also presented two individuals in court who had been declared dead and removed from the roll.

The ECI’s counsel objected to this, asking, “What drama is going on in the court?”

The hearing is scheduled to resume on Wednesday, August 13.