Supreme Court to rule on India's SIR electoral roll legality

The Supreme Court is scheduled to deliver its judgment on Wednesday, May 27, 2026, on a series of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls conducted by the Election Commission of India. The outcome will determine the legality of an exercise that has already been implemented in multiple states and is planned for nationwide expansion.

The petitions, filed by various entities including the Association for Democratic Reforms, the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties, and several political leaders, argue that the SIR exceeds the Election Commission’s authority under Article 326 of the Constitution, the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and its associated rules. They contend the commission is effectively verifying citizenship, a power they say rests with the central government.

The legal challenge centers on a specific requirement of the SIR process. For voters whose names were absent from the 2002 or 2003 electoral rolls, the exercise mandated they establish an ancestral linkage to a person listed in those rolls. Petitioners argued this condition risked disenfranchising genuine voters, particularly marginalized...