Judicial drift in the Special Intensive Revision hearings, Pg8

Key Highlights:

• In February 2026, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, appeared before the Supreme Court regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
• The Court stated that no impediment to the SIR would be allowed across any of the States.
• Challenges to the constitutionality of the SIR were first filed in July, when it was announced for the State of Bihar.
• The Court's intervention led to directions on February 9, seeking to mitigate hardships related to SIR.

Detailed Insights:

• The core constitutional challenge to the SIR remains undecided, with the Court seemingly pre-judging the fundamental issue.
• The Court's role appears to have shifted from constitutional adjudication to administration, similar to the Aadhaar case.
• The Representation of the People Act authorizes the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct special revisions, but the scale of the current SIRs raises questions.
• The SIRs effectively require citizens to freshly establish their citizenship and right to vote, inverting the state-citizen relationship.
• Reports indicate arbitrary deletions from voter rolls and misuse of Form 7 to strike off individuals en masse.
• Documentation requirements disproportionately impact vulnerable and marginalized populations, accentuating existing inequalities.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Special Intensive Revision (SIR): A large-scale revision of electoral rolls conducted across multiple states in India.
• Representation of the People Act: India's primary election law, which authorizes the ECI to conduct special revisions of electoral rolls.
• Form 7: A form that allows any person to object to the inclusion of another person in the electoral roll.