Supreme Court Seeks EC Reply on Voter Roll Purge Allegations, Puts SIR on Hold
Supreme Court halts controversial SIR just months before 2026 polls.
The Supreme Court slammed the brakes on the Election Commission’s aggressive Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal by directing the EC to file detailed replies within two weeks to explosive petitions filed by DMK, CPI(M), Trinamool Congress, and Congress leaders who allege the entire exercise is a targeted attempt at mass voter disenfranchisement ahead of crucial 2026 Assembly elections.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi went a step further and ordered both the Madras High Court and Calcutta High Court to immediately freeze all ongoing proceedings related to the SIR challenges, effectively putting the voter purge on ice across two of India’s most politically volatile states until the apex court examines whether the Election Commission is overstepping its constitutional mandate.
The court also permitted AIADMK to formally intervene in support of the SIR in Tamil Nadu, setting the stage for a high-voltage legal battle that will pit the ruling DMK against its arch-rival AIADMK inside the Supreme Court, while in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress has accused the EC of acting as a “caged parrot” of the Centre to delete millions of legitimate Bengali-speaking and minority voters under the guise of “cleaning” the rolls.
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Launched on November 4, the second phase of the SIR is sweeping through 12 states and Union territories, with an unusually tight timeline that ends with final electoral rolls being published on February 7, 2026 — just weeks before Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, and Puducherry head to the polls, raising serious questions about whether lakhs of genuine voters will mysteriously vanish from the lists in opposition-ruled states.
With political temperatures already soaring and both DMK and TMC alleging that the EC’s door-to-door verification is being weaponised to target specific communities, the Supreme Court’s decision to personally monitor the matter has sent a clear message to Nirvachan Sadan: any attempt to manipulate electoral rolls ahead of 2026 will face the highest judicial scrutiny, and the battle for India’s democracy has now moved from the streets straight into courtroom number one.
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