Supreme Court Shorts SC’s Bihar SIR with Aadhar Authentication

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The SC order comes as an “egg on the face” moment for the ECI, as it had doggedly rejected demands for the Aadhar authentication in Bihar SIR

By TRH Political Desk

NEW DELHI, August 14, 2025 — The Supreme Court in a clear indictment of the Election Commission of India ordered admission of Aadhar authentication from aggrieved voters who may have faced deletion of their names in the Bihar Special Intensive Electoral Revision (SIR) of the Electoral Roll.

The Supreme Court also put a firm stop to the bid of the EC to evade scrutiny on list of deleted voters, numbering almost 65 lakh, by seeking list upload on websites at district levels. The EC’s Bihar SIR hit the headline for turning out to be an exercise to delete names of voters from the electoral roll, as critics slammed a lack of addition of even one name in the voters’ list in the poll-bound state.

Live Law on Thursday reported that the apex court “directed the ECI to publish on the websites of the District Electoral Officers the district-wise list of approximately 65 lakh voters who have been omitted from the draft electoral roll published after the Bihar SIR.” The news portal, tracking the proceedings of the SC, also stated that the order also asked the ECI to list “the reasons for deletion, such as death, migration, double-registration. Etc.”

The apex court order comes as a huge relief after Opposition leaders questioned the deletion of voters. Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi shared tea with a group of the voters from Bihar, who had seen their names deleted with the EC allegedly declaring them dead. Activist Yogendra Yadav also produced a few of such voters who had been allegedly declared dead by the ECI in the Supreme Court during proceedings.

The development comes also as an “egg on the face” moment for the ECI, as the poll body had doggedly rejected demands for the inclusion of the Aadhar cards for authentication. Now, the SC decreed that a person can share the unique identification number for inclusion in Bihar’s electoral roll after their names were deleted in the SIR.

“The Supreme Court has just upheld the Constitution of India in a categorical, convincing, and courageous manner,” said Jairam Ramesh, chief of the communication department of the Congress. He added that “today’s verdict of the Supreme Court on the Bihar SIR issue is a beacon of hope. It is a gigantic first step.”
The apex court order also in a way affirmed arguments that the ECI with 11 documents for verification in the Bihar SIR had only been aiming for deletion of voters. The deleted voters amounted almost to six percent of Bihar’s vote base. The ECI had prepared the electoral roll in Bihar in January this year only.

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