Supreme Court’s observation on inclusion of voters, when judicial power degenerates into judicial populism

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, July 29, 2025

The supreme court’s observation on the ongoing special intensive revision of electoral roll in Bihar that ‘Aadhar’ card or voter card may be included in the list of documents required for inclusion in the voters list is bizarre, to say the least. Much like the Supreme Court the Election Commission of India is a constitutional body empowered to decide on summary or intensive revision of voters list and conduct of elections in totality. Based on this constitutional mandate the ECI has been conducting elections in the country by faithfully following the procedure laid down. Before the special intensive revision in Bihar had been undertaken the ECI had notified as many as eleven documents that would facilitate inclusion of names in the voters list but the clueless opposition on the look out for elusive issues started crying hoarse over the SIR so that non-citizens and its RDX vote bank mostly comprising the infiltrators and terroristic Rohingiyas could be retained in the voters list. The ECI had quite legitimately excluded the ‘Aadhar’ card or voter I-card from the list of documents required for inclusion-legitimate because ‘Aadhar’ is merely an identity bearing card as imprinted on each one of them while Voter I-card means nothing in terms of residential value because, thanks to our vote-crazy political parties, obtaining a voter I-card is perhaps the easiest thing in this country. Given this context the Supreme Court’s observation-obviously not binding on any institution-appears to be an exercise in judicial populism.

Now carrying out a special intensive revision (SIR) is nothing new as the procedure has been periodically on since the early fifties of the last century. Leaving aside the earlier processes, it is now on , as recorded in history. In Bihar, the poll bound state of contention, the last SIR had been conducted last in the year 2003 and it is high time after a long gap that another SIR was carried out, specially in view of the upcoming assembly polls. During the past few decades the entire Eastern Zone of the country has been adversely affected by ceaseless infiltration from Bangladesh under the patronage of non-BJP parties and this reality also made the SIR in Bihar an imperative.

But can this be any reason for dissent from the opposition? No and never, because such revision had been undertaken in Telengana leading to omission of 22 lakh voters, in Hyderabad Loksabha seat leading to the omission of 5 lakh voters, in Karnataka leading to the removal of 4 lakh dead or fake names, in Kerala leading to addition of 3 lakh genuine voters, in Himachal Pradesh leading to 47 thousand voters and in West Bengal before 2021 assembly polls leading to omission of 2 lakh voters. In all these states it was the constituent parties of the opposition that won the assembly elections. Now after the string of losses in assembly polls post-Loksabha election the opposition is desperate to perform better in Bihar but it is the fear of anticipated consequences from a blatantly wrong premise that is goading the opposition, specially the bankrupt Congress to make a false issue out of a legitimate and long overdue process.

It is only fair and just that the ECI is steadfast in its mission to detoxify the electoral roll and it should be so, notwithstanding the bizarre observation of the Supreme Court. If democracy in this country is to survive and flourish the ECI must continue to perform its constitutionally mandated duties regardless of the fake and false narratives floated by a bankrupt opposition.

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