Supreme Court to pronounce verdict on Bihar SIR on May 27

📌 Summary:

• Supreme Court Bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi to deliver judgment on May 27, 2026 on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar

• Case was reserved for verdict in January; petitions filed by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and others

• Core charge: ECI "arbitrarily assumed powers to determine citizenship" overriding limitations clearly prescribed in parliamentary laws (RP Act, Registration of Electors Rules), its own manual, "without providing any good reason"

• Verdict will have impact beyond Bihar: a second phase of SIR has already commenced in 12 States/UTs covering 51 crore voters (including West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam) — even while the Bihar challenge was pending

• Key judicial interventions during hearings: (1) Court got ECI to include Aadhaar as the 12th document in the list of indicative documents voters could file as proof of identity/residence (2) Court reminded ECI: "the degree of transparency and access to information form the hallmarks of an open democracy" (3) Court pushed ECI to publish the names of voters added to the final electoral roll

• Bihar final roll: 7.42 crore eligible voters; ECI directed to publish district-wise, booth-level searchable list of nearly 65 lakh voters purged from the draft roll along with exact reasons for deletion

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS2 (Polity — RPA & Elections, ECI, Judiciary, Federalism); functioning of statutory bodies; transparency in governance

📝 Prelims Facts:

• ECI is a constitutional body under Article 324 (not statutory)
• SIR = Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls (distinct from regular Summary Revision)
• Bihar SIR — first phase; 65 lakh voters were purged from the draft roll
• Aadhaar added as 12th indicative document for proof of identity/residence (besides 11 already listed)
• Second phase of SIR covered 51 crore voters in 12 States/UTs
• Bench: CJI Surya Kant + Justice Joymalya Bagchi
• Petitioner: Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) — an NGO

🔑 Key Term: Special Intensive Revision (SIR) — A door-to-door enumeration based revision of electoral rolls (as opposed to the annual Summary Revision); last conducted across India in 2003. ECI''s 2025 SIR sought citizenship-related documentation, sparking the legal challenge.