Trinamool MP Mahua Moitra Moves Supreme Court Against Electoral Roll Revision in Bihar, Seeks Injunction On Similar Orders Against Other States

Mahua Moitra, Member of Parliament from Krishnanagar constituency in West Bengal has moved Supreme Court against Election Commission's  order for Electoral Roll revision in Bihar.

The petition has sought a direction to quash the  Order dated 24.06.2025 issued by Election Commission of India (ECI) under which Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar is being conducted in violation of Articles 14, 19(1)(a), 21, 325, 326 of the Constitution of India and provisions of Representation of People (RP) Act, 1950 and Registration of Electors (RER) Rules, 1960.

The petitioner has also sought  a direction from restraining Election Commission of India from issuing similar orders for Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Roll in other states of the country.

The petition states that it can lead to large-scale disenfranchisement of eligible voters in the country thereby undermining democracy and free and fair elections in the country. 

It is stated in the plea  that it is for the very first time in the country that such an exercise is being conducted by ECI, where electors whose names are already there in electoral rolls and who have already voted multiple times in are being asked to prove their eligibility.

The impugned order requires the inclusion or retention of a voter's name in the electoral roll upon production of citizenship documents, including proof of citizenship of either or both the parents, failing which the voter is at risk of exclusion.

As per the petitioner this requirement is ultra vires Article 326 and introduces extraneous qualifications not contemplated by the Constitution or the RP Act 1950.

The petitioner submitted that;

“The said order arbitrarily excludes commonly accepted identity documents such as Aadhaar and ration cards from the list of accepted documents thereby putting huge burden on the voters who are at a huge risk of getting disenfranchised. Current field reports from Bihar confirm that lakhs of residents across rural and marginalised areas in Bihar are at imminent risk of disenfranchisement due to these stringent and unreasonable requirements”.

It is further alleged that the order disproportionately affects economically and socially vulnerable communities and resemble the structure and consequences of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which has been widely critiqued.

"Paragraph 13 of the impugned order expressly mandates that failure to submit fresh enumeration forms by 25.07.2025 shall result in exclusion from the draft roll, without adequate procedural protection. That the SIR of electoral roll in so far as it requires voters to again prove their eligibility as voters through a set of documents is also absurd, since on the basis of their existing eligibility most existing voters have already voted multiple times in state as well as general elections

It is also submitted that the unreasonable timeline effectively forecloses the possibility of compliance for those who may otherwise be able to procure the necessary documents. The petitioner has information that the said exercise is stated to be replicated in West Bengal from August 2025 for which instructions have already been given to EROs.

The petition has been filed by Advocate Neha Rathi.