Supreme Court: In a batch of petitions filed by opposition party leaders and several NGOs, challenging the Election Commission of India (‘ECI’) directive dated 24-06-2025, which ordered a Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls in Bihar., the Division Bench of Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi, JJ. urged the ECI to consider allowing Aadhaar, ration cards, and Electoral Photo Identity Cards (‘EPICs’) as admissible documents for proving voter identity during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls being undertaken in Bihar ahead of the Assembly elections in November 2025.
The petitioners contended that the ongoing exercise undertaken by the ECI through its order dated 24-06-2025, which called for a Special Intensive Revision of the electoral roll, violated the Fundamental Rights of voters in Bihar, particularly under Articles 14, 21, 324, 325, and 326 of the Constitution of India. They further argued that the exercise was in violation of the provisions of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950, and the Rules framed thereunder, specifically the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
The petitioners also submitted that the order dated 24-06-2025 issued by the Election Commission of India listed 11 specific documents, one of which a prospective voter was required to submit to establish their eligibility as a voter in a particular constituency. However, the petitioners pointed out that many bona fide voters might be rendered ineligible due to not possessing any of the listed documents.
ECI submitted that the last intensive revision of electoral rolls in Bihar had taken place as far back as the year 2003 and that an intensive revision was now required, which was also mandated under Article 326, read with Section 21(3) of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950, and the Rules framed thereunder. The ECI emphasised that it was merely following the mandate of the law.
The Court noted that, in short, the petitioners had questioned the following:
a) The powers of the Election Commission to undertake the present exercise of Special Intensive Revision;
b) The procedure being adopted and the manner in which the exercise was being undertaken; and
c) The timing of the present exercise, including the timeline given for the preparation of the Draft Electoral Rolls, objections, etc., and the final publication of the Electoral Roll, especially considering the fact that the Bihar State Assembly Elections were due in November 2025, for which Notifications would be issued weeks in advance.
The Court stated that the matter required a hearing and therefore, decided to issue notice in all these petitions, returnable on 28-07-2025. The ECI accepted the notice. The Court directed that a counter affidavit be filed by the ECI on or before 21-07-2025. Any rejoinder affidavit, if necessary, was to be filed before 28-07-2025.
The Court noted that, after reviewing the documents, the ECI acknowledged that the list for voter verification comprises 11 documents and is not exhaustive. The Court expressed that “it would be in the interest of justice if Aadhaar card, EPIC card and Ration card be included.”
The Court stated that ECI could proceed in accordance with the law, in light of the above observations. Since these cases were set to come before the appropriate court prior to 01-08- 2025, the scheduled date for the notification of the Draft Electoral Rolls, there was no need at that time to pass any order on the ad interim stay applications. Moreover, the Court noted that the petitioners did not press for a stay at that stage. Depending on the reply of ECI, the petitioners would have been at liberty to press their plea for a stay at the next date of listing.
The matter will next be taken up on 28-07-2025.
[Association for Democratic Reforms v. Election Commission of India, 2025 SCC OnLine SC 1408, decided on 10-07-2025]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For Petitioner(s): Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sr. Adv., Ms. Shahrukh Alam, Adv., Mr. Amit Bhandari, Adv., Mr. Talha Abdul Rahman, AO, Mr. Shantanu, Adv., Mr. M Shaz Khan, Adv., Mr. Aman Naqvi, Adv., Mr. Rafid Akhter, Adv., Mr. Sudhanshu Tewari, Adv., Mr. Shadan Farasat, Sr. Adv., Mr. Harshit Anand, Adv.,Ms. Natasha Maheshwari, Adv., Mr. Yash S. Vijay, AOR, Mr. Shikhar Aggarwal, Adv., Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Sr. Adv., Mr. Prashant Bhushan, AOR
Ms. Neha Rathi, Adv., Mr. Shourya Dasgupta, Adv.,Mr. Tushar Srivastava, Adv.,Ms. Kajal Giri, Adv.,Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sr. Adv.,Mr. Muhammad Ali Khan, Adv.,Mr. Omar Hoda, Adv.,Mr. Mr. Amit Bhandari, Adv.,Ms. Eesha Bakshi, Adv.,Mr. Uday Bhatia, Adv.,Mr. Arjun Sharma, Adv.,Mr. Kamran Khan, Adv.,Ms. Gurbani Bhatia, Adv.,Mr. Usman Ghani Khan, AOR,Mr. Shoeb Alam, Sr. Adv.,Mr. Ujjwal Singh, AOR,Mr. Dev Sareen, Adv.,Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv.,Ms. Fauzia Shakil, AOR,Ms. Aparajita Jamwal, Adv.,Dr. Abhishek M. Singhvi, Sr. Adv.,Ms. Neha Rathi, AOR,Ms. Kajal Giri, Adv.,Ms. Palak Mathur, Adv.
For Respondent(s): Mr. Amit Bhandari, Adv.,Mr. Pranav Sachdeva, Adv.,Dr. K. S. Chauhan, Sr. Adv.,Mr. Ajit Kumar Ekka, Adv.,Mr. Abhishek Chauhan, Adv.,Mr. Alok Kumar, Adv.,Mr. Sumit Ranjan, Adv.,Mr. R.k. Chauhan, Adv.,Mr. Ratan Singh, Adv.,Mr. Sumit Kishore, Adv.,Mr. Sneh Suman, Adv.,Mr. Kumar Gaurav, Adv.,Mr. Ravi Prakash, AOR,Ms. Vrinda Grover, Adv.,Mr. John Simte, Adv.,Ms. Devika Tulsiani, Adv.,Mr. Soutik Banerjee, Adv.,Mr. Aakarsh Kamra, AOR,Mr. Pradeep Kumar Yadav, Adv.,Ms. Anjali Patel, Adv.,Mr. Gopal Singh, Adv.,Mr. Sanjeev Malhotra, AOR,Mr. Nizam Pasha, Adv.,Mr. Arif Ali, Adv.,Mr. Madhav Deepak, Adv.,Mr. Abishek Jebaraj, AOR,Ms. A Reyna Shruti, Adv.,Mr. D. P. Singh, Adv.,Mr. Ashish Kumar Chaurasiya, Adv.,Mr. Ganga Sagar Singh, Adv.,Mr. Adarsh Verma, Adv.,Mr. Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, Adv.,Mr. Ashwani Kumar Dubey, AOR,Mr. Nikhil Upadhyay, Adv.,Mr. K. K. Venugopal, Attorney General for India,Mr. Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General,Mr. Kanu Agarwal, Adv.,Mr. Raman Yadav, Adv.,Ms. Sansriti Pathak, Adv.,Mr. Gaurang Bhushan, Adv.,Mr. Rakesh Dwivedi, Sr. Adv.,Mr. Eklavya Dwivedi, Adv.,Mr. Kumar Utsav, Adv.
Mohd. Yasir, Adv.4,Mr. Dama Seshadri Naidu, Sr. Adv.,Mr. Abhinav Thakur, Adv.,Mr. Deepak Sharma, Adv.,Mr. Prateek Kumar, AOR,Mr. Sukumar Pattajoshi, Sr. Adv.,Mr. Prateek Kumar, AOR,Mr. Rakesh Chaubey, Adv.,Mr. Maninder Singh, Sr. Adv.,Mr. Sidhant Kumar, Adv.,Mr. Sahil Tagotra, AOR,Mr. Amarpal Singh Dua, Adv.,Mr. Milind Rai, Adv.,Ms. Shreya Kasera, Adv.,Mr. Barun Kumar Sinha, Adv.,Mrs. Pratibha Sinha, Adv.,Mr. Sneh Vardhan, Adv.,Mr. Pankaj Kumar Shukla, Adv.,Mr. Chhal Bihar Singh, Adv.,Mr. Anantha Narayana M.G., AOR
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