Supreme Court Upholds Electoral Roll Revision Exercise, BJP Targets Rahul Gandhi Over Opposition to SIR

New Delhi, May 2026 : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday intensified its attack on Congress leader and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi after the Supreme Court upheld the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, calling the exercise constitutional and legally valid.

Reacting strongly to the ruling, BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari alleged that the Congress party had opposed the revision process because it was “standing with infiltrators instead of genuine Indian voters.”

“The Supreme Court has clearly declared the SIR process legal and constitutional. Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party now stand completely exposed,” Bhandari said while addressing the media following the verdict.

He further accused the Congress of attempting to undermine democratic institutions by questioning the electoral roll revision process. “The Congress opposed the exercise throughout because it did not want illegal infiltrators removed from the electoral rolls. This was an anti-national act in the true sense. Rahul Gandhi should apologise for defaming Indian democracy,” he said.

The remarks came after a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi upheld the Election Commission’s authority to undertake the Special Intensive Revision under Article 324 of the Constitution along with Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.

The apex court ruled that the ECI had acted well within its constitutional and statutory powers while initiating the revision exercise. The Bench observed that the process was directly linked to ensuring free and fair elections by maintaining accurate and credible electoral rolls.

In its judgment, the Supreme Court stated that democracy depends not only on polling but also on the integrity and reliability of voter lists. “Free and fair elections do not rest merely upon the mechanics of polling. They fundamentally depend upon the integrity, accuracy and credibility of the electoral rolls,” the Bench observed.

The court further noted that more than four decades had passed since the last intensive revision of electoral rolls in many regions, while rapid urbanisation, migration and large-scale additions and deletions in voter databases had increased the possibility of duplication and inaccuracies.

According to the judgment, the SIR exercise was necessary to strengthen the credibility of the electoral process and to ensure that only eligible citizens remained enrolled as voters.

The case arose from a batch of petitions challenging the Election Commission’s decision to begin the Special Intensive Revision in states including Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Petitioners had argued that the exercise could potentially disenfranchise legitimate voters and exceed the powers granted to the ECI.

However, the Supreme Court rejected those objections and held that the revision exercise did not violate any provisions of the Representation of the People Act or related electoral rules.

The ruling is expected to have significant political implications, especially as preparations for upcoming Assembly elections gather momentum in several states. The BJP has already begun using the verdict to sharpen its political attack on the Congress, while opposition parties are likely to continue raising concerns over the implementation of the voter verification process.

The Election Commission, meanwhile, is expected to continue the revision exercise in multiple states in the coming months as part of efforts to update and verify electoral rolls nationwide.

(The content of this article is sourced from a news agency and has not been edited by the Mavericknews30 team.)