5 months ago
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Petitioners successful the Supreme Court connected Thursday (November 27, 2025) flagged the Election Commission (EC)’s “dangerous and unreasonable” determination to person schoolteachers, deployed arsenic booth-level officers (BLOs) successful the peculiar intensive revision (SIR) exercise, find the citizenship of voters.
Appearing earlier a Bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, elder advocates Kapil Sibal and A.M. Singhvi said the tribunal had spent the past months of SIR hearings giving the “healing touch”, portion successful the process relegating to the inheritance the instrumentality that intensive revisions ought to beryllium constricted to a constituency oregon a tiny group, and not done en masse, State aft State, crossed the country.
Mr. Sibal submitted that the Representation of the People Act (ROPA), 1950, required a idiosyncratic to beryllium 18 years of property and beryllium ordinarily nonmigratory successful a constituency to beryllium eligible for registration successful the electoral roll. He said Aadhaar could precise good beryllium utilized to verify some these details.
The elder lawyer said a BLO had nary authorization to find citizenship. “Whether a idiosyncratic is an Indian national oregon not is decided by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Whether a idiosyncratic is of unsound caput is decided by the competent court. Laws similar Prevention of Corruption Act and the Representation of the People Act would signifier the statutory ground for disqualifying a idiosyncratic from the electoral roll. You cannot inquire the BLO to ascertain each this,” Mr. Sibal said.
He accused the Election Commission (EC) of supplanting the full process for the revision of electoral roll. “Introduction of enumeration forms and shifting of load of impervious of citizenship... It is similar the load of impervious placed connected a foreigner. The conditions exclusionary which were existing earlier Independence is present existing aft Independence,” Mr. Sibal submitted.
‘Beyond its domain’
Mr. Singhvi called the SIR an en masse workout devised by the EC imagining determination was a “huge, marauding influx” of amerciable immigrants into India.
He said successful the bargain, “crores and crores of people, State aft State, are being asked to beryllium their citizenship. Where is the EC’s jurisdiction to bash this? Article 324 [power of the EC to behaviour elections] cannot beryllium utilized to plug holes successful the EC’s jurisdiction… Is the EC saying that an elector’s beingness successful the 2024 and 2025 rolls is arsenic a presumptive guest?” helium asked.
The elder counsel pointed retired that the powerfulness of EC nether Section 21(3) of ROPA to “direct a peculiar revision of the electoral rotation for immoderate constituency oregon portion of a constituency successful specified mode arsenic it whitethorn deliberation fit” cannot beryllium interpreted arsenic an en masse exercise.
He argued that, adjacent if the EC had to measure citizenship for the intent of voting, it could lone beryllium done if idiosyncratic raised an objection. Otherwise, determination were 2 laws, the Foreigners Act and the Citizenship Act, which governed amerciable immigrants.
The tribunal adjourned the proceeding to December 2.
