The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought separate responses from the Election Commission (EC) on pleas filed by the DMK, CPI(M), the West Bengal unit of the Congress and Trinamool Congress leaders, challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal respectively.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi asked the poll panel to respond to the fresh petitions in two weeks.
The matter is listed for hearing on November 26, reported LiveLaw.
The apex court also asked the Madras and Calcutta high courts to keep in abeyance any proceedings on petitions challenging the SIR of the electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
It also allowed the listing of an intervention application filed by the AIADMK supporting the exercise in Tamil Nadu.
The petitioners in the Bihar SIR case have raised concerns that the process permits arbitrary deletion of voters without adequate safeguards, potentially disenfranchising lakhs of citizens and undermining free and fair elections.
The ECI has defended SIR asserting that it is empowered to undertake such an exercise and that the revision is crucial to ensure that only eligible citizens are included in the electoral rolls ahead of the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections.
It was earlier informed that 65 lakh names were dropped from the Bihar draft electoral roll published on August 1. On August 14, the Court directed the ECI to upload the list of these 65 lakh voters proposed to be deleted during the SIR.
On October 27, the EC announced the conduct of the second phase of the SIR exercise in 12 states and Union territories between November and February next year.
The states and Union territories are -- the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal are scheduled to go to polls in 2026.
The EC said for Assam, where polls are also due in 2026, the revision of the electoral rolls will be announced separately.
The second phase of the SIR exercise began on November 4 and will continue till December 4. The EC will release the draft electoral rolls on December 9 and the final electoral rolls will be published on February 7.