Indian Supreme Court upholds Election Commission's voter‑roll purge

The Supreme Court of India has affirmed the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, which removed large numbers of voters from the electoral rolls in Bihar and West Bengal. The Court declined to identify those excluded and offered no procedural safeguards, effectively allowing the purge to proceed ahead of upcoming elections.

Legal analysts describe the ruling as “the largest ever disenfranchisement in an electoral democracy” and warn that it signals a retreat of judicial checks on electoral manipulation, drawing parallels with the judiciary’s stance during the Emergency period. Critics argue that the decision undermines the constitutional guarantee of universal adult suffrage and leaves millions of citizens without a clear avenue for redress.