The Election Commission on Thursday termed the Bihar SIR "accurate" and told the Supreme Court that the petitioner political parties and NGOs are merely content with making "false allegations" to discredit the exercise.
The poll body also told the apex court that not a single appeal has been filed by any voter against name deletion since the publication of the final electoral roll.
It denied the allegation of the petitioners that there was a "disproportionate exclusion of Muslims" from the final electoral roll of the state prepared after the months-long Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
"This communal approach is to be deprecated," the poll panel said.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, which noted the absence of political parties from the hearing due to rallies in the poll-bound state, said it expects the poll panel, as a responsible authority, to look into typographical errors and other mistakes in the final list of Bihar electoral roll prepared after the SIR exercise and come out with remedial measures.
Seeking dismissal of pleas challenging the June 24 decision of the poll panel to conduct the Bihar SIR, the EC said the petitioners have "ulterior motives" and are merely content with making "false allegations" to discredit the SIR exercise, final electoral roll and the ECI for electoral interest of political parties.
The poll panel, in its affidavit, further said barring appointment of Booth Level Agents (BLAs), the political parties and public-spirited individuals and organisations made no substantial contribution in ensuring that all eligible electors were included in the final electoral roll.
"The approach of the political parties and the petitioners has been to accuse the ECI and attempt to point out errors in the SIR exercise. In contrast, the ECI not only appointed more than 90,000 BLOs, but also involved political parties and got BLAs appointed.
"The exercise was conducted on an H2H basis involving more than one visit. All relevant data was uploaded on the websites," it said.
The poll panel further said this court also enabled the assistance of the State Legal Services Authority, yet the number of objections and correction applications was minimal. "This indicates that the SIR exercise was accurate. Even after the determination of the objections and deletion of approximately 3.66 lakh individuals from the final electoral roll, no appeal has been reported as of now," it said.
The EC pointed out that the petitioners -- Association of Democratic Reforms, an NGO, and activist Yogendra Yadav -- have sought to allege that there is disproportionate exclusion of Muslims (25 per cent amongst 65 lakh excluded voters from the draft electoral roll, and 34 per cent amongst 3.66 lakh electors finally deleted) which was based on some software for name recognition, whose authenticity, accuracy or appropriateness cannot be commented upon.
"This communal approach is to be deprecated. The electoral rolls database does not capture any information on religion of any elector...," it said, adding these 65 lakh deleted individuals were not included as they did not submit enumeration forms, being dead, having permanently shifted or having entries in more than one constituency.
The bench posted the matter for further hearing on November 4 for adjudicating legal issues.
During the hearing, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, said the EC should disclose how many voters were deleted and for what revision to ensure transparency in the exercise.
The bench noted that the electoral roll will be frozen on October 17 in some constituencies of Bihar, which are going into poll in the first phase and on October 20, which will go into poll in the second phase.
The poll watchdog further said documents filed by the petitioners themselves indicate that up till 2022, the number of voters was more than the projected total population.
This justifies the SIR exercise undertaken by the poll panel after a lapse of more than 22 years since the previous SIR was conducted in 2003 in Bihar, it said.
The EC countered the allegation of the petitioners regarding the time being short and the exercise being conducted hastily, terming them "incorrect and misconceived".
"The reference to a high degree of illiteracy of people in the state of Bihar, numerous districts being flooded, and therefore, SIR exercise would lead to mass disenfranchisement due to the inability of electors to furnish documents sought under the SIR order dated June 24, 2025, was also misconceived, incorrect and erroneous," it said.
On September 30, the EC, while publishing the final electoral list of the poll-bound Bihar, said the total number of electors has come down by nearly 47 lakh to 7.42 crore in the final electoral roll from 7.89 crore before SIR.
The final figure has, however, increased by 17.87 lakh from 7.24 crore electors named in the draft list issued on August 1, which had removed 65 lakh voters from the original list on various accounts, including deaths, migration and duplication of voters.
While 21.53 lakh new electors have been added to the draft list, 3.66 lakh names have been removed, resulting in a net increase of 17.87 lakh.
The assembly elections in Bihar will be held in 121 seats of the 243-member Assembly on November 6, while the remaining 122 constituencies will go to polls on November 11. The counting of votes will be held on November 14.
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