The Supreme Court on Monday said that it will hear the final arguments on the Bihar electoral roll revision on Oct 7. It added that the final verdict will be for the Bihar SIR as well as exercise that the Election Commission of India will take up for the entire country.
The Supreme Court was hearing the pleas challenging Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of Bihar’s electoral rolls. The court, in its previous hearing, has directed the ECI to Aadhaar Card be accepted as a ’12th document’ for proof of identity of voters, subject to verification of its genuineness and without it serving as a proof of citizenship
On Centre’s request to relook the previous order of including Aadhar as 12th document, the SC said. “Other documents too can be forged, not just Aadhaar.”
To this, the Centre said keeping Aadhar with the 11 other documents is completely contrary to law. “Aaadhar is issued to foreigners also. Please modify the order dated 8th September. Otherwise it will be disastrous,” Adv Ashwini Upadhyay said.
“Whether disastrous or not will be decided by the ECI… we are keeping this issue open. We are not rejecting or accepting,” the bench observed.
ECI on Monday filed an affidavit stating that it has issued communications to Chief Electoral Officers of all States/UTs, except Bihar, to initiate preparatory steps for SIR of electoral rolls and 01.01.2026 has been set as the qualifying date.
The court said it will hear the final arguments on October 7, and if “we find any illegality in Bihar SIR, entire exercise will be set aside”.
The ECI had notified in June this year that it will conduct an SIR exercise in Bihar, to overhaul the voter list. The opposition claimed that exercise was meant to reduce the number of voters and questioned the timing of the exercise. They said that elections are scheduled to be held in Bihar and the ECI was hurrying things to give benefits to the BJP-led NDA.
What happened in last hearing
In the last hearing, the Supreme Court directed that the Aadhaar card must be treated as the 12th document for the purpose of identity to include voters in the Bihar SIR exercise. The top court, however, said it is clarified that authorities shall be entitled to verify the authenticity and genuineness of the Aadhaar card itself.
“It shall not be accepted as proof of citizenship,” it said, adding that the Election Commission of India (ECI) must issue
instructions in this regard by September 9.
“There is no quarrel that as per the statutory status assigned to Aadhaar Card under the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, it is not a proof of citizenship and therefore shall not be accepted as proof of citizenship,” the bench noted.
“(However) keeping in view Section 23(4) of the Representation of People Act, 1950, the Aadhaar Card is one of the documents enumerated for the purpose of establishing the identity of a person. Accordingly, we direct the Election Commission of India and its authorities to accept Aadhar Card as a proof of identity for the purpose of inclusion or exclusion in the revised voter list of the State of Bihar. Aadhaar Card, for this purpose, shall be treated as the 12th document by the Authorities,” the apex court ordered.
Bihar Elections 2025
Assembly elections in Bihar are to be completed by November 22, 2025 and the ECI’s SIR exercise has become the biggest topic of debate between the ruling regime and the opposition. The new draft voter rolls will most likely be published by October 1.
The EC will announce the date of Bihar elections, only after finalising the voter rolls.
