Ranit Kr. Singh , New Delhi - The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the legality of the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, ruling that the voter roll purification drive does not violate any constitutional or statutory provisions. A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant declared the process "legally tenable," stating that an accurate electoral roll is directly linked to the democratic goal of ensuring free and fair elections. The apex court dismissed a batch of petitions filed by opposition leaders and civil society groups that had challenged the massive exercise, which was launched last year starting with Bihar.

Addressing concerns over voter disenfranchisement, the court affirmed the ECI’s power to scrutinize citizenship during the drive but clarified that having a name deleted from the voter list does not equate to stripping a person of their citizenship. The bench ruled that any deletion on these grounds remains subject to further legal adjudication. Furthermore, the top court directed the poll body to refer individuals who were removed for failing to prove citizenship to a competent authority for appropriate legal resolution, ensuring an extra layer of procedural safeguard.

The ECI initiated the SIR exercise in June last year to cleanse electoral rolls of bogus, duplicate, and deceased voters, as well as ineligible individuals. While the opposition criticized the drive as a politically motivated move to benefit the ruling party, the Supreme Court deemed the ECI's methodology fair and proportional to its objectives. Noting that factors like rapid urbanization and migration justify such special interventions, the court concluded that the scale of the operation and its built-in procedural safeguards successfully met constitutional standards.