DMK moves Supreme Court against SIR, says it is de facto NRC

Tamil Nadu ruling enactment Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) organising caput R.S. Bharathi moved the Supreme Court connected Monday (November 3, 2025) against the second signifier of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise announced by the Election Commission of India successful 12 States and Union Territories, saying the process amounts to “constitutional overreach” and is simply a thinly-disguised, de facto National Register of Citizens (NRC).

“By imposing citizenship-like burdens of impervious connected electors, the SIR appears to beryllium acting beyond its statutory purpose, efficaciously functioning arsenic a de facto National Register of Citizens (NRC). If the SIR bid of October 27 is not acceptable aside, the workout tin arbitrarily and without owed process, disenfranchise lakhs of voters from electing their representatives, thereby disrupting escaped and just elections and ideology successful the country, which are portion of the basal operation of the Constitution,” Mr. Bharathi submitted successful a petition represented done elder advocates NR Elango, Amit Anand Tiwari and advocator Saushriya Havelia.

The petition, the archetypal situation successful the apex tribunal against the 2nd signifier of the SIR commenced from October 28, highlighted the deficiency of owed process arsenic good arsenic the unreasonably abbreviated timeline for the SIR of the electoral rotation successful Tamil Nadu arsenic designed to exclude voters.

“The unilateral imposition of specified an unprecedented, resource‑intensive and socially disruptive process connected a State, without consultation oregon demonstrable administrative exigency, transgresses the national operation of the Constitution, recognised arsenic portion of its basal structure. In bypassing statutory safeguards, the State acrophobic has efficaciously been reduced to a specified implementing bureau for centrally determined, unilateral processes posing a sedate hazard of disenfranchising ample numbers of bona fide voters,” the DMK person highlighted.

The plea, filed done advocator Vivek Singh, said a Special Summary Revision had already been conducted successful Tamil Nadu betwixt October 2024 to January 6, 2025. This workout had addressed issues specified arsenic migration, decease and deletion of ineligible voters. The existing electoral rotation successful Tamil Nadu had been updated and published connected January 6, 2025 and continuously updated since then.

Referring to however the Bihar SIR had excluded registered electors en masse and introduced caller and stringent request for voters to supply impervious of citizenship, peculiarly for those not registered successful the 2003 electoral roll, Mr. Bharathi said the EC, done its SIR, was seeking to supplant the existing statutory model which already governs the mentation and revision of electoral rolls.

“The mode successful which the SIR has been directed to beryllium conducted is recovered neither successful Representation of the People Act (ROPA), 1950 oregon successful the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960

Additionally, Section 28(3) of ROPA requires each Rules to beryllium notified successful the Official Gazette and laid earlier Parliament. No specified notification has been issued for the SIR and the aforesaid has not been laid earlier the Parliament. Therefore, the SIR is without the unit of instrumentality and lacks statutory basis,” the petition argued.

It noted that the orders adjacent let Electoral Registration Officers to notation cases of ‘suspected overseas nationals’ to the competent authorization nether the Citizenship Act, 1955, without owed process. “The question whether a idiosyncratic is simply a foreigner is simply a question of information and has to beryllium determined by the Union authorities nether the Citizenship Act, 1955,” the petition said.

Mr. Bharathi submitted that neither ROPA nor the 1960 Rules notation immoderate “enumeration forms” successful revision of electoral rolls. Besides, commonly disposable documents specified arsenic ration cards, PAN Cards, and EPIC person been excluded successful the SIR.

The petition, which is the archetypal to situation the 2nd signifier of the SIR, said the exercise’s rigid and arbitrary papers requirements neglect to accommodate the realities of disadvantaged communities who look chronic under-documentation.

“They disproportionately load the youth, migrants, women, economically weaker sections and

marginalised communities, who are slightest apt to beryllium capable to furnish specified records wrong the unreasonably truncated timeline prescribed. This inequity is further aggravated by the arbitrary exclusion of wide accepted authorities issued individuality documents,” it noted.