The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would step in if the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar led to “mass exclusion” of voters.

The apex court, which was dealing with a batch of petitions challenging the validity of the SIR, also sought evidence supporting the allegation that the Election Commission had declared some voters dead even though they were alive.

“Your apprehension is 65 lakh-odd voters will not feature... they (EC) are seeking (appeals for) correction vis-a-vis the 2025 entries. We are overviewing the thing as a judicial authority. If there is mass exclusion, we will immediately step in. Bring 15 people saying they are alive,” a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi told advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners.

Bhushan claimed that as many as 65 lakh people could not submit their forms for the draft enumeration during
the SIR.

“They (EC) say they are dead or have shifted elsewhere. Whoever is not on the draft list, how do they get themselves included? They have to apply afresh... how will he come to know he is not on the draft list?” Bhushan said, pleading that the
poll panel should be asked
to clarify.

The bench said: “There’s a constitutional institution (EC), we would deem their action will be in accordance with law. We are here, we will hear the matter.”

“The moment they deviate from the notification, of course we will interfere,”
it added.

The petitioners had challenged the poll panel’s SIR order of June 25 as being illegal and unconstitutional. They fear that the exercise would render over 3 crore voters ineligible ahead of the Bihar polls.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Bengal government, told the apex court that the state had also filed an intervention application in the matter and wanted to be heard along with the other petitioners.

Endorsing Bhushan’s allegations about the large-scale deletion of voters from the rolls, Sibal said lakhs of voters in Bihar were confused about their current status.

Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the EC, told the court that the poll panel had already circulated the draft voters’ list among the political parties.

“People are entitled to object, and they have been given 30 days to do so,” Dwivedi said, while suggesting that the petitioners should assist in the process of enrolment of genuine voters.

Justice Kant, heading the bench, said the court would hear the matter again on August 12 and 13. “Your first apprehension seems to be about the draft list. We can hear your grievance on that. The second phase of hearing we can take up in September,” the bench said while adjourning the matter.

On Monday, the court had refused to stay the publication of the Bihar draft rolls by the Election Commission on August 1 but warned of quashing the entire exercise if it found any irregularities.

The bench had also told the EC to include both Aadhaar and EPIC (Election Photo Identity Cards) as valid proof, saying: “There should be mass inclusion and not mass exclusion.”