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2025 SCC OnLine SC 1408

In the Supreme Court of India

(BEFORE SUDHANSHU DHULIA AND JOYMALYA BAGCHI, JJ.)

Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s). 640/2025

Association for Democratic Reforms and Others …
Petitioner(s);
Versus
Election Commission of India … Respondent(s).
(IA No. 155692/2025 - Stay Application)
With
W.P.(C) No. 637/2025 (PIL-W)
IA No. 155298/2025 - Exemption From Filing O.T.
IA No. 155300/2025 - Grant of Interim Relief
W.P.(C) No. 636/2025 (PIL-W)
IA No. 155265/2025 - Application for Permission
IA No. 155262/2025 - Stay Application
W.P.(C) No. 638/2025 (PIL-W)
IA No. 155401/2025 - Grant of Interim Relief
W.P.(C) No. 630/2025 (PIL-W)
IA No. 154352/2025 - Exemption From Filing O.T.
IA No. 156066/2025 - Intervention Application
IA No. 154351/2025 - Stay Application
W.P.(C) No. 631/2025 (PIL-W)
IA No. 155803/2025 - Permission to File Additional
Documents/Facts/Annexures
(IA No. 154421/2025 - Stay Application)
W.P.(C) No. 642/2025 (PIL-W)
(IA No. 156189/2025 - Stay Application)
With
Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s). 634/2025
Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s). 644/2025
Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s). 645/2025
Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s). 646/2025
Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s). 640/2025, IA No. 155692/2025, W.P.
(C) No. 637/2025 (PIL-W), IA No. 155298/2025, IA No.
155300/2025, W.P.(C) No. 636/2025 (PIL-W), IA No.
155265/2025, IA No. 155262/2025, W.P.(C) No. 638/2025 (PIL-
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W), IA No. 155401/2025, W.P.(C) No. 630/2025 (PIL-W), IA No.

154352/2025, IA No. 156066/2025, IA No. 154351/2025, W.P.(C)
No. 631/2025 (PIL-W), IA No. 155803/2025, IA No. 154421/2025,
W.P.(C) No. 642/2025 (PIL-W), IA No. 156189/2025, Writ Petition
(s)(Civil) No(s). 634/2025, Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s). 644/2025,
Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s). 645/2025 and Writ Petition(s)(Civil)
No(s). 646/2025
Decided on July 10, 2025
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Sr. Adv., Ms. Shahrukh Alam, Adv., Mr.
Amit Bhandari, Adv., Mr. Talha Abdul Rahman, AOR, 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., 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., For Petitioner(s)
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., Mr. Dama Seshadri Naidu, Sr. Adv., Mr. Abhinav Thakur,
Adv., Mr. Deepak Sharma, Adv., Mr. Prateek Kumar, AOR, Mr. Sukumar
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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, For
Respondent(s)
ORDER
1. An important question has been raised in these bunch of
petitions, including Public Interest Litigations, before this Court. The
question, petitioners would argue, goes to the very root of the
functioning of a democracy - the question of ‘Right to Vote’ of the
electorate. The case of the petitioners is that the ongoing exercise
undertaken by the Election Commission of India, vide its order dated
24.06.2025, called Special Intensive Revision (‘SIR’), of Electoral Roll
violates the Fundamental Rights of the voters in Bihar, inter alia under
Articles 14, 21, 324, 325 and 326 of the Constitution of India. It is also
in violation of the provisions of Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 and
the Rules framed therein, particularly, the Registration of Electors
Rules, 1960, the petitioners would say. Another submission of the
petitioners would be that the order dated 24.06.2025 of Election
Commission of India gives a list of 11 documents, and a prospective
voter has to submit one of these documents to establish its veracity as
a voter in a particular constituency. Yet there may be many bona fide
voters who will be rendered ineligible as they may not have any of
these 11 documents.
2. Mr. Rakesh Dwivedi, learned senior counsel representing the
Election Commission of India, on the other hand, would submit that the
last Intensive Revision of Electoral Rolls took place in Bihar as far back
as in the year 2003 and presently, an intensive revision is required,
which is also mandated under Article 326 read with Section 21(3) of
the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 and the Rules framed therein.
The Election Commission of India is only following the mandate of law.
3. In short, the petitioners question 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 is being undertaken; and
c) the timing for undertaking the present exercise including the time
line given for preparation of the Draft Electoral Rolls, objections,
etc. and the final publication of Electoral Roll, considering the fact
that in Bihar State Assembly Elections are due in November,
2025, for which Notifications will come weeks in advance.
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4. The matter needs hearing. We hence issue notice in all these

petitions, returnable on 28.07.2025. Notice is accepted by the Election
Commission of India. Let Counter affidavit be filed by the Election
Commission of India on or before 21.07.2025. Rejoinder affidavit, if
any, be filed before 28.07.2025.
5. Mr. Rakesh Dwivedi had pointed out to us that the documents
which are to be considered by the Election Commission for verification
of the voters illustrates 11 documents, but the list is not exhaustive.
Since the list is not exhaustive, in our prima facie opinion, it would be
in the interest of justice if the Election Commission of India also
considers the following three documents as well (apart from the 11
documents mentioned in order dated 24.06.2025), i.e., A) Aadhar
Card; B) Electors Photo Identify Card (EPIC), which is issued by
Election Commission of India itself, and C) the Ration Card.
6. The Election Commission may presently proceed in accordance
with law, in light of our above observations. Since these cases will come
up before the appropriate Court prior to August 1, 2025 which is the
scheduled date for notification of Draft Electoral Rolls there is no
occasion presently to pass any order on the ad interim stay
applications, and the petitioners in any case do not press for a stay at
this stage. Depending on the reply of the Election Commission the
petitioners would always be at liberty to press their plea for stay on the
next date of listing.
7. Let the matter be listed on 28.07.2025 before appropriate Court.
———
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