In a charged hearing on August 12, the Supreme Court held that while the power to confer or revoke citizenship lies solely with Parliament, the Election Commission of India (ECI) can — and must — ensure that only citizens are included in electoral rolls and non-citizens are excluded.

Presiding over petitions challenging the ECI’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar, Justice Surya Kant said the litigation “largely” appeared to be “a case of trust deficiency,” as petitioners accused the poll body of an unprecedented mass deletion of voters ahead of the state’s elections.

The bench, also comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi, questioned the existing norm that allows prospective voters to enter the rolls simply by filing a self-declaration of citizenship, warning it could lead to legal complications. The court said the ECI is empowered to verify such claims — and cannot rely solely on declarations.

Senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Kapil Sibal, and Prashant Bhushan alleged that the SIR had become a citizenship test in disguise, with five crore voters nationwide at risk of presumptive exclusion. In Bihar alone, activist and psephologist Yogendra Yadav said, 65 lakh names — disproportionately women — had already been struck off, bringing down the state’s eligible adult voter percentage to 88%.

Petitioners claimed the deletions targeted those already on the rolls since the 2003 revision without due procedure, and criticised the ECI for making draft rolls unsearchable online after August 4, forcing citizens to rely on political party agents for verification. The ECI, represented by senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, dismissed the claims as speculative and urged the court to allow the revision to conclude.

Justice Kant stressed that if the court finds the process unlawful, it can be overturned even in September — regardless of election timelines. “If they declare five crore people invalid, we are sitting here,” he said.

The case will be watched closely as it touches the nerve of both electoral integrity and mass disenfranchisement fears, with the Supreme Court poised as the final arbiter between the poll body’s powers and citizens’ rights.