Furnish details of 3.66 Lakh excluded voters under Bihar SIR by 9 October: Supreme Court directs Election Commission

The Supreme Court, on 7 October, asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to furnish details of excluded voters during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar by Thursday, 9 October.

The top court's directives came a day after the Election Commission announced the schedule for the Bihar assembly elections. Voting will be held in Bihar in two phases – 6 and 11 November.

The results will be announced on 14 November.

Details of 3.66 lakh excluded voters sought

A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing the petitions challenging the SIR exercise.

“SC asks EC to provide it with details of 3.66 lakh excluded voters from final electoral roll prepared under Bihar SIR exercise,” news agency PTI said.

On 30 September, the Election Commission of India published the final electoral roll of poll-bound Bihar. The state has about 7.42 crore voters as per the final list. There were 7.24 crore electors in the draft rolls published in August. This was after deleting 65 lakh voters from the voter list, which comprised 7.89 crore electors as on 24 June 2025.

In addition to the 65 lakh names removed at the time of publishing the draft roll in August, another 3.66 lakh ‘ineligible’ voters have been removed, while 21.53 lakh new voters have been added, taking the final voters in Bihar to 7.4 crore. This means about 47 lakh voters have been deleted from the 24 June list.

During the hearing in the matter on Tuesday, the poll body stated that no complaint or appeal has been filed by any excluded voters to date. Most of the names added in the final electoral roll in SIR are of new voters, while few are old voters, the poll panel told the court

When is the Bihar Election 2025?

The Bihar Election 2025 will decide the fate of the ruling National Democratic Alliance government, led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, which is being challenged by the INDIA bloc comprising the RJD, Congress, and other parties.

The first phase will see polling in 121 Assembly constituencies in central Bihar on 6 November. The second phase will cover 122 seats, in the north, east and south on 11 November, as per the election schedule.

(With agency inputs)