The Supreme Court in its recent judgement upheld the validity of the cleanup (revision) campaign of electoral rolls. This decision has once again left the opposition red-faced. Over the last 12 years, the opposition has time and again tried to create suspicion in the minds of the common people by casting doubt on every decision taken by the central government and other constitutional institutions. Not a single one of these attempts has been successful. The opposition tried to create the impression that the revision/cleanup/correction (SIR) of the electoral rolls was something mysterious.

The Election Commission updates the electoral rolls every year. However, the electoral rolls revision campaign involves more intensive verification. Migrant voters, deceased persons, duplicate entries, suspicious citizenship, incorrect details and bogus records are checked. Large-scale migration to cities and incomplete verification have led to serious discrepancies in electoral rolls. Therefore, the Election Commission was insisting that the SIR was necessary to ensure free and fair elections. The Supreme Court also upheld this view.

There are a few key points in the Supreme Court’s verdict such as the Election Commission has the authority to revise electoral rolls under Article 324, the revision process is neither arbitrary nor illegal, keeping clean electoral rolls is important for the credibility of democracy and the Commission has the authority to conduct preliminary verification of citizenship. This clearly shows that the Court has upheld the authority of the Election Commission.

The Supreme Court has dismissed all objections to the revision of the electoral rolls. Given the comprehensive nature of this process, there is no scope to claim that anyone’s rights have been denied. During the entire SIR process, necessary precautions such as issuing notices, hearing the citizen’s point of view, recording objections, taking action on them and provision for the right to appeal have been ensured. The Supreme Court has clarified that there was no arbitrariness in the documents sought for inclusion of names in the electoral rolls.

When the Election Commission of India launched the electoral rolls revision campaign, all major opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, created a major uproar over it. After failing to mislead the public with allegations against EVMs, Rahul Gandhi started using the electoral rolls revision campaign to cover up his failure. Before that, several attempts were made to raise suspicion about the Election Commission by spreading false information regarding irregularities in the electoral rolls and voter turnout. Sanjay Kumar, co-founder of CSDS–Lokniti, an organization that predicts election results, claimed in a tweet that voter turnout was around 35% lower compared to the Lok Sabha elections in Devlali and Ramtek assembly constituencies of Maharashtra.

Congress alleged that BJP–Mahayuti candidates won in these two constituencies due to the deletion of a large number of voters. In an elaborate article in The Times of India on 17 August 2025, Sanjay Kumar questioned the Election Commission’s stance of not responding to the Congress’s allegations. On 19 August 2025, he retracted the tweet on the Maharashtra Assembly elections and apologised unconditionally. He retracted his tweet after the Election Commission re-published the voting data and also warned of legal action. Sanjay Kumar admitted that his conclusions about voter figures in Ramtek and Deolali Assembly constituencies were wrong. This showed how media and renowned people from various fields support Congress in its campaign against the Election Commission. Rahul Gandhi had accused the Election Commission of helping the BJP in vote theft by citing errors such as multiple voters registered at the same address, incomplete or incorrect voter details, one voter registered at multiple addresses. These errors are not new.

The revision of the electoral rolls has been initiated precisely to correct these mistakes. The names of Bangladeshi infiltrators in the electoral rolls will be deleted through this process. As a result of this campaign, the electoral rolls will be more accurate, entries of deceased persons, duplicate names and fake records will be removed and bogus voting, fake identity cards and illegal voting will be prevented. This is exactly what the opposition has objected to.

However, the Supreme Court has given the green signal to the cleanup campaign of electoral rolls by dismissing all objections raised by the opposition. The opposition has once again fallen flat on its face. This will be their fate as long as they look for such excuses to cover up their failure.

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