Petitioner RJD MP Manoj Jha has raised questions on the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) regarding the voter list. He has said that this process is inappropriate in practice. He said that for this the voter will have to provide his birth certificate or any such document which proves that one of his parents is an Indian. He said that if a voter’s father did not vote in the 2003 elections and died before that, then how would citizenship be proved.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appeared on behalf of petitioner Manoj Jha before the bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi. While presenting his point of view, he also raised questions on the scope of powers of Booth Level Officers (BLO). He asked, ‘Can the BLO decide whether a person is mentally challenged or not and can he decide whether a voter is an Indian citizen or not?’

According to the report of Live Law, Kapil Sibal said that it does not come under the jurisdiction of BLOs to decide whether a voter is an Indian citizen or not, because the BLOs who have been appointed are only school teachers. Kapil Sibal said, ‘Deploying a school teacher as a BLO to determine citizenship is, substantively and procedurally, a dangerous and unfair proposal.’

Kapil Sibal said that the rules being implemented are similar to the rules of the Foreigners (Citizens) Act, where the onus is on the person to prove that he is not a foreigner. Giving an example, he said, ‘The enumerator will ask the voter, tell me when was your father born? Give me proof of this… How will I be able to prove this?

He said, ‘How will I fulfill this responsibility when my father did not vote as per the 2003 voter list or he died before that?’ Chief Justice Surya Kant said on this, ‘But if your father’s name is not in the list and you also did not work on it… then perhaps you missed it…’ The court will now hear the matter on December 2.

On the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists going on in Bengal and Tamil Nadu, the Supreme Court has asked the petitioners why they are so apprehensive about the exercise. The court has issued a notice to the Election Commission on the petitions filed against Bengal and Tamil Nadu SIR.

According to the report of Bar and Bench, on Tuesday (November 11, 2025), the bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing six petitions filed against the ongoing SIR in Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The ruling party in the state, DMK Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), CPIM and Congress have filed petitions regarding SIR taking place in Tamil Nadu, while Congress filed the petition for Bengal.

The court has sent a notice to the Election Commission on the petitions and sought its response. The court has also asked the petitioners why they are so apprehensive about the SIR. The court told the petitioners that if they were satisfied with the reply, they would cancel the exercise. Earlier, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, on behalf of DMK, argued in the court that this process is being done in a hurry, whereas earlier it used to take three years to revise the voter list. This is the first time that this process is happening so quickly.

Kapil Sibal said that the Election Commission is saying that the process will be done in a month. He said that the ultimate thing will be that lakhs of people will be removed from the voter list. On this the court said, ‘You have filed your counter. We are issuing notice. If we are satisfied, we will cancel the process. We are issuing notices on all writ petitions. Hearing is already going on in the court regarding Bihar SIR.

SIR was first started from Bihar in the month of June, against which many people including Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Federation for Indian Women filed petitions. Although the process has been completed in Bihar, the matter is still pending in the court.

Voting for the first phase of assembly elections is going to take place tomorrow on Thursday (November 6, 2025) after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list in Bihar, where the people of Bihar will elect the leader of their choice on the basis of their issues. In this election, along with adults, old people and senior citizens, who are more than 100 years of age, will also vote. Apart from this, the number of such youth is also in lakhs, who will vote for the first time for the development of Bihar.

There are many such questions in the minds of the people of the state regarding the Bihar Assembly elections, the answers to which have already been made clear by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Let us know about all those questions and the answers given by the Commission.

Question: When will the first phase of elections be held in Bihar?

Answer: Thursday (November 6, 2025)

Question: When will the second phase elections be held in Bihar?

Answer: Tuesday (November 11, 2025)

Question: Elections will be held on how many assembly seats in Bihar?

Answer: 243

Question: How many assembly seats will be elected in the first phase?

Answer: 121

Question: How many assembly seats will be voted in the second phase of elections?

Answer: 122

Question: How many total voters will vote in Bihar after SIR?

Answer: 7.43 crores

Question: Number of first time voters in Bihar Assembly elections?

Answer: 1.4 million

Question: What is the number of women voters in Bihar?

Answer: 3.5 crores

Question: What is the number of male voters in Bihar?

Answer: 3.92 crores

Question: How many transgender voters in Bihar?

Answer: 1,725

Question: How many voters are above 100 years of age in Bihar?

Answer: 14,000

Question: How many polling stations have been set up for voting in Bihar?

Answer: 90,712

Question: How many voters have availed the facility of voting from home?

Answer: 85

Question: How many polling stations will the mounted squad protect?

Answer: 250

Question: How many polling stations will the Election Commission team reach by boat?

Answer: 197

Question: How many polling officers were deployed for Bihar Assembly elections?

Answer: 4.53 lakh

Question: How many sector officers were deployed for Bihar elections?

Answer: 9,600

Question: How many officers deployed for counting of votes after the elections?

Answer: 28,300

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As Bihar assembly elections are approaching, political rhetoric is increasing. Meanwhile, Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind General Secretary Niaz Farooqui, in a special conversation with ABP News, has raised serious questions on the Central Government and the Election Commission.

Farooqui said that Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind strongly opposes the way statements are being made during Bihar elections regarding the population of Muslims and infiltrators. He has appealed to the Prime Minister and the Home Minister to avoid such statements which create division in the society.

Questions raised on Election Commission regarding SIR

Farooqui also raised questions on the voter list of Bihar and said that names of about 50 lakh voters have been removed from the voter list, this is a big matter. It seems that all this was done to influence the elections. Farooqui alleged that the names of these 50 lakh voters were removed so that power could be gained.

He said that if there were 50 lakh fake voters then the Election Commission was the one to add them to the voter list. Why did the Commission not take action when fake names were being added? This clearly means that there has been a reshuffle in the voter list to gain power.

‘The truth behind the figures is a political stunt’

On the issue of infiltrators, Farooqui said that Muslims are being targeted again and again. He said that when the same issue was raised in Assam, it was proved in the court that the truth behind the figures was something else. This is just a political stunt. Farooqui said that elections in Bihar should not be held on caste and religion, but on issues like development, employment and education.

On the recent statements of Asaduddin Owaisi, he said that he is the leader of a political party, we are not associated with any party, hence will not comment on his words, but will definitely say that why can’t the son of a Muslim become the Chief Minister or Prime Minister in this country? If the population of Muslims in the country is 15 percent then they should also get their 15 percent rights. If this right is not given then questions are bound to arise.

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Like Bihar, the Election Commission has also announced the second phase of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter list in 12 states and union territories of the country. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar said on Monday (October 27, 2025) that the second phase of SIR will start from Tuesday (October 28, 2025). After this the final draft list will be released on 7 February 2026.

During the press conference, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar also released the list of 12 states and union territories of the country where the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process of voter list will be started from tomorrow.

In which states and union territories will it happen? Sir?

The Election Commission said that from tomorrow Tuesday (October 28, 2025), the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process of voter list will start in Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Apart from this, if we talk about Union Territories, the SIR process will start in Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.

How many voters will be investigated under SIR process?,

According to the Election Commission data, the total number of voters in all these 12 states and union territories is around 51 crore, who will go through this special intensive vetting process. Of these, the maximum number of 15 crore 44 lakh 24 thousand voters are in the state of Uttar Pradesh alone. After this, West Bengal is in second place with 7 crore 66 lakh 24 thousand voters. Whereas Tamil Nadu is at third place with 6 crore 41 lakh 15 thousand voters.

At the same time, a total of 5,33,093 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will be deployed by the Election Commission for the verification work of this number of voters, out of which 1,62,486 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will be deployed in Uttar Pradesh, 80,681, 68,467 in West Bengal, 65,014 in Madhya Pradesh, 52,490 in Rajasthan and 50,963 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in Gujarat.

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All India Special Intensive Review (SIR) campaign will be announced soon in many states of the country. An Election Commission official said that the Election Commission will hold a press conference on Monday evening (October 27, 2025) regarding the special intensive revision of the voter list. The first phase of SIR campaign by ECI will start from Monday. This campaign will start from 10 to 15 states, which will also include those states where elections are going to be held next year.

10 to 15 states included in the first phase

Elections will be held in Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal in 2026 and all these will be in the list of states where the work of purifying the voter list will start first. Officials said that the Commission will announce the first phase of SIR on Monday, which will include 10 to 15 states.

He said that the Election Commission will not undertake the work of purification of electoral rolls in those states where local body elections are being held or about to be held, as the grassroots level election machinery is busy with it and may not be able to concentrate on SIR.

SIR will be implemented in two phases

He said that SIR in such states will be conducted in later phases. The work of purifying the voter list has been completed in Bihar, where the final list containing about 7.42 crore names was published on September 30.

Voting will take place in Bihar in two phases, on November 6 and November 11, and counting of votes will take place on November 14. The Commission has already held two meetings with state Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) to decide on the roadmap for implementing SIR. Many Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) have already put on their websites the voter lists published after their last SIR.

Why is SIR being implemented in the states?

The last SIR of voter lists in most states is between 2002 and 2004. The primary objective of SIR is to screen out foreign illegal immigrants by investigating the place of birth. This step is important in view of the crackdown in various states on illegal immigrants from other countries including Bangladesh and Myanmar.

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During the hearing in the Supreme Court on Tuesday (7 October 2025) on the Bihar SIR list, the Election Commission said that no person has objected to the Election Commission so far, only NGOs sitting in Delhi are making noise.

Senior Advocates Prashant Bhushan and Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the court to the petitioners that the names of 3.66 lakh people are missing from the final list and they were not given any information about it so that they could appeal. On this argument of the petitioners, Election Commission counsel Rakesh Dwivedi said that the list was handed over to all political parties.

Rakesh Dwivedi said, ‘We have handed over the list to every political party, but no person is coming to the Election Commission himself. NGOs sitting in Delhi are making noise. These people have not yet filed an application challenging the final list. Are arguing on the old petition.

A bench of Justice Suryakant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked Advocate Prashant Bhushan where the victims are. Prashant Bhushan demanded from the court that the names of those removed from the list should be made public. He said that he can name 100-200 people whose name is not in the list. He claimed that a large number of people have been removed from the list.

On this argument of Prashant Bhushan, the Election Commission said that arguments and documents cannot be handed over directly to such benches. He said that the petitioners will have to file an affidavit and the Election Commission will answer it. The court asked the petitioners to include special cases in the affidavit. The court also said that both draft list and final voter list are present on the Election Commission website, so that he can find out the names excluded from the list.

Prashant Bhushan told the court that 65 lakh people were removed in the first draft list, but after the intervention of the Supreme Court, 21 lakh people were included. He said that it is not understood that the names added to the list are those which were initially removed from the list or are new names. The court told the Election Commission that the names of the names which have been removed from the list should be given in the District Electoral Office. The Election Commission told the court that most of the voters included in the list are new.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday told the Election Commission that the complete information of the voters who were excluded during special intensive revision in Bihar should be made available by October 9. The Supreme Court bench of Justice Suryakant and Justice Joymalaya Bagchi was hearing the petitions challenging the election list of Bihar. The court has postponed the hearing till 9 October.

What did the Election Commission say during the hearing?
During the hearing, the Election Commission told the court that so far any excluded voter has not filed a complaint or appeal. The Commission was directed to provide a list of 3.66 lakh such voters who were excluded from the recently prepared voter list.

Number of voters excluded
On 30 September, the Election Commission released the final voter list for Bihar. There were a total of 47 lakh names in this which were included in the list before the SIR process started, but they were removed after revision. Out of these, 3.66 lakh names were removed after additional examination, who were found to be unqualified for voting.

47 lakh voters less in Bihar’s last voter list
According to the Election Commission, the total number of voters in Bihar’s final voter list released on 30 September was 7.42 crore, which was 7.89 crore before SIR. That is, a total of 47 lakh voters have been reduced in the list, but if you compare it to the draft list released on August 1, then the situation is different. 65 lakh names were removed in that draft, including cases of death, transfer or duplication. A total of 21.53 lakh new voters were added to the final list and 3.66 lakh names were removed. This means that 17.87 lakh voters have increased compared to the draft list.

After the release of the final list of special intensive revision (SIR) in Bihar, on Tuesday (October 7, 2025), the Supreme Court demanded that the names of 3.66 lakh people removed from the list be made public. The petitioners say that neither notice was sent to any of these and their names were removed on the objection of others. On this, the court asked the petitioners for whom he is raising his voice, there are some who will not come to court even if the name is out of the list.

Justice Suryakant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi were hearing the bench case. Senior Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Prashant Bhushan appeared on behalf of the petitioners. Prashant Bhushan said that after reviewing the final list, it was found that it had complicated the situation. He said that a large number of people were excluded in the name of improvement in the voter list. Abhishek Manu Singhvi also said that people did not get information that their name was removed and no one was given an appeal. Advocate Vrinda Grover also said that the information available on the Election Commission website is not clear, in which information is not available according to gender or age.

Some will not come to court even after removing the name from the alien list, Justice Suryakanth said
According to The Hindu report, Justice Suryakant asked Advocate Prashant Bhushan for whom the petitioners are doing so. He said, ‘There are some aliens here which will not even raise their voice to remove their names from the voter list. They will not come to court. So Mr. Bhushan is doing all this for whom? ‘ Justice was hearing Suryakant’s bench case. Justice Suryakant said, “We do not want this matter to become an uncontrolled inquiry.”

What did the Election Commission say?
On these arguments of the petitioners, Election Commission counsel Rakesh Dwivedi said that information was given to every voter. He said that everyone is claiming anything, so an affidavit should be taken from them. Rakesh Dwivedi said that last time Yogendra Yadav had brought some people to court. No accountability is showing.

Rakesh Dwivedi said, ‘We have handed over the list to every political party. No person himself is coming to the Election Commission. NGOs sitting in Delhi are making noise. These people have not yet filed an application challenging the final list. They are arguing on the old petition. The election has been announced. We have to settle for this.

During this, Advocate Ashwin Upadhyay demanded from the court that all cases should be transferred to Patna High Court. Senior Advocate Vijay Hansariya said that here these petitioners say some things, then ‘vote theft’ is created outside.

A new voter list has been released after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) run by the Election Commission in Bihar. Large scale changes have been made in this revision. According to the official data released by the Election Commission, the names of about 69 lakh voters have been removed, while 21 lakh new voters have been added to the list.

After this, the total number of voters in the state has increased to about 7 crore 42 lakhs, which is about 18 lakh more than the draft list. According to the information given by the Commission, 65 lakh names were first removed from the draft list during this revision, which lasted from 24 June 2025 to 30 September 2025.

Focus on adding new voters

Apart from this, after 1 August, about 4 lakh more names were removed, due to which the total number reached 68.66 lakhs. Most of these were those who either moved permanently, were not in the list due to death or whose information could not be fully verified. The Commission has placed them in the category of ineligible voters.

At the same time, special attention was also paid to adding new voters during this process. In the claims and objections received by the Commission, about 37 thousand people had filled the form, most of which were included in the final list. In total, 21.53 lakh new voters have now become part of Bihar’s voter list. These new voters also include young voters who voted for the first time.

You can register objections regarding voter list

The Election Commission has made it clear that this entire exercise was done under Article 326 of the Constitution and this principle of the Commission. He said that no eligible voter should be missed and no ineligible voter should be included. If a eligible voter still wants to add his name, then he can apply till 10 days before the enrollment process starts.

At the same time, those who object to the decision of the Commission, they can file the first appeal with the District Magistrate and another appeal to the CEO. After the arrival of the new voter list, the ongoing politics about it is not stopping. The opposition is still raising many questions about this voter list.

Hearing in Supreme Court

At the same time, the next hearing on this matter is yet to be held in the Supreme Court. Where the Supreme Court can also express its opinion on these figures released by the Election Commission, but it is expected that Bihar will be the upcoming assembly elections on the basis of this voter list.

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