Courts cannot fix time to revise poll rolls, ECI tells SC

THe Election direction of bharat (ECI) has told the sublime margaret court that it cannot be judicially directed to pack out special intensive revisions of electoral rolls across the country at fixed intervals, insisting that such decisions fall exclusively within its constitutional and statutory domain.In an affidavit filed late on Friday, the poll body maintained that Article 324 of the Constitution, read with provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960, vest the authority to prepare and revise electoral rolls solely with the Commission.“The ECI has complete discretion over the policy of revision to the exclusion of any other authority,” the affidavit stated, adding that any judicial mandate to conduct special intensive revisions at regular intervals would amount to encroaching upon its plenary powers.The affidavit came in response to a public interest litigation by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who has sought court directions to mandate special revisions throughout the country, particularly ahead of parliamentary, assembly, and local body elections, to ensure that only Indian citizens decide the polity and policy, and not “illegal foreign infiltrators.”The Commission’s stand comes even as its ongoing special revision in Bihar, announced in June, has triggered a major political row. With assembly polls due later this year, the opposition INDIA bloc has accused the exercise of being designed to skew the rolls, while the Commission has countered that parties should “assist genuine voters instead of staging demonstrations.”Upadhyay’s petition was last taken up by a bench led by Justice Surya Kant on September 8, when the court ordered that Aadhaar must be accepted as the twelfth valid document for inclusion in Bihar’s electoral rolls during the ongoing special intensive revision, intervening after complaints that election officials were refusing to recognise it despite earlier directions.The bench had turned down the ECI’s reservations against formally adding Aadhaar to its list of approved identity proofs, stressing that while the document cannot establish citizenship, it remains a valid indicator of identity and residence.Reiterating its authority, the ECI pointed to Section 21 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, which provides for revisions of electoral rolls but does not prescribe any timeline. “The obligation to conduct a revision is not couched within a fixed interval,” the affidavit stated. Under the law, the Commission may order a summary or intensive revision at its discretion and may, for recorded reasons, direct a special revision for any constituency or part thereof “as it may think fit.”The affidavit also noted that on June 24, 2025, the Commission had already decided to undertake a special intensive revision, with January 1, 2026, as the qualifying date, and directed all chief electoral officers to initiate pre-revision activities. A conference of state chief electoral officers was convened on September 10 in New Delhi to review the preparatory steps.Upadhyay, in his plea, has argued that large-scale infiltration, demographic shifts, and fraudulent entries have distorted electoral rolls in several states, particularly border regions. His petition claims that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Myanmar, coupled with “deceitful religious conversions and unchecked population growth,” have drastically altered the demography of nearly 200 districts and 1,500 tehsils since Independence.“Demography is destiny and dozens of districts have already seen their destiny being shaped by those who aren’t Indians,” the petition warned, claiming that fake and duplicate entries could illegitimately sway election results in constituencies with narrow margins.Upadhyay further cited the 1997 voter verification drive in Assam, which identified “D-voters” (doubtful voters) and referred their cases to Foreigners Tribunals, as a precedent for similar special intensive revisions in Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and other states. According to him, Bihar alone may have 8,000–10,000 illegal or duplicate entries per constituency.The petition has prayed for mandatory special intensive revisions at regular intervals across India, action against those facilitating fake documents, and other directions to ensure free and fair elections under Articles 324 and 326 of the Constitution.Responding, the ECI has told the top court that it is already alive to its statutory responsibility of maintaining the purity and integrity of the electoral rolls, even as it asserted that the manner and frequency of revisions must remain its prerogative.“In view of the aforesaid, the captioned petition deserves to be dismissed,” the affidavit concluded.