'Justified': Supreme Court backs SIR after adult population in Bihar outweighs voters by 107%

The EC recently announced that the final voters’ list for Bihar has 7.42 crore voters.

The Supreme Court said Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise was justified since the total number of voters in Bihar outweighed its adult population by 107% in the past.

“So, SIR in any case was justified if this was the case,” said Justice Surya Kant as quoted by Indian Express.

Kant was presiding over a two-judge bench which was hearing petitions challenging the SIR exercise.  Justice Joymalya Bagchi was also part of the bench.

Justice Kant made the observation after activist Yogedra Yadav cited the figures to support his claim that the total number of voters had come down by 47 lakhs after the SIR exercise.

The IE report stated that Yadav told the bench that according to the government data, Bihar’s adult population for September 2025 was 8.22 crore. “In other words, the total electoral roll of Bihar should have been 8.22 crore. When SIR began, the electoral roll was 7.89 crore,” he said.

The EC recently announced that the final voters’ list for Bihar has 7.42 crore voters.

“All over the world, voters’ lists are judged on three parameters – completeness, equity and accuracy… I would judge the completeness of SIR by asking have we moved from 7.89 to 8.22 crore? Unfortunately, instead of moving in the north, it has moved in the south. It has brought us 47 lakh below that,” Yadav told the bench.

What does the court say?

Justice Bagchi pointed out that  the “difference between electors and the adult population (in Bihar) was touching 107%”. “So there was swelling of the electoral population or duplication, in comparison to the adult population. Particularly in respect of the 2014 Lok Sabha election and 2015 Assembly election…So this was definitely a problem which required correction,” Justice Bagchi said.

Yadav admitted that Bihar had a problem in the initial years. However, he said the problem was cured in 2023 and the current SIR “is a medicine administered after the patient was cured”. He adding that the exercise has “led to the largest ever shrinkage (of voters) in the history of this country”.

Justice Bagchi said that “105% is a crisis, not a problem”.

However, Yadav said at that point, Bihar had 38 lakh more voters than the adult population. “And… the problem had been cured after that. Now it (the shortage) is 81 lakh,” he said.

Justice Bagchi pointed out that it includes the 38 lakh excess from the past. Yadav said the objection was not to the power of the EC to carry out the SIR exercise, but “to the nature of revision that was suggested”.

Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the poll panel, said there are five more days remaining for those excluded from the final list to file appeals. He  urged the court to issue a direction to all concerned to help such persons file appeals.

The bench asked the Bihar State Legal Service Authority to issue directions to its district-level bodies to help voters excluded from the final rolls in filing appeals with the EC.

The court will again hear the matter on October 16.

The EC has  announced that the Bihar Assembly elections will be held in two phases on November 6 and November 11, with counting of votes scheduled for November 14.

The polls are expected to be a high-stakes contest between the ruling NDA alliance of the BJP and JD(U), and the opposition Mahagathbandhan, led by RJD and Congress. Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party will also contest.