Supreme Court issues notices to Election Commission and Maharashtra government over voter deletions

NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Maharashtra government on a petition challenging voter deletions under the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise in the state and seeking an interim stay on the process.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, scheduled the hearing for November 5. The matter is set to be reviewed just a day before the poll panel publishes the final state electoral roll on November 6.

The petition, filed by chartered accountant and journalist Arun Anandagiri, was represented by senior advocate Arvind Datar. According to the petition, the SIR process removed over 40% of voters in Mumbai, amounting to approximately 3.6 million individuals. Substantial deletions were also recorded in other urban centers, including 2.86 million in Pune, 2.85 million in Thane, and 1.4 million in Nagpur.

Appearing for the petitioner, Arvind Datar stated that thousands of residents displaced by urban renewal initiatives—specifically 3,500 redevelopment projects in Mumbai and 1,500 projects in Pune—were temporarily shifted to alternative accommodations. According to the submission, these voters were marked as “not found” at their previous addresses, resulting in their deletion from the electoral rolls, with an estimated three crore persons knocked off rolls nationally.

The legal challenge forms part of a broader batch of petitions before the Supreme Court contesting the nationwide SIR framework. Other petitioners include Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and various opposition leaders. Opposition parties have alleged that the SIR exercise functions as a strategic voter roll clean-up drive designed to benefit the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The controversy over electoral roll revisions has also drawn sharp political divisions in other states. In West Bengal, where nearly nine million voters were deleted during the SIR process, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) maintained that the deletions assisted the BJP in winning elections. The BJP has rejected any such link.

The nationwide electoral roll cleansing drive initially commenced in Bihar in June last year, with the stated objective of removing bogus, duplicate, ineligible voters, deceased individuals, and illegal immigrants.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to separately resume hearings on October 28 regarding an application that challenges the ECI’s decision to enroll deleted voters as new voters during Delhi’s SIR process.