How SIR can mar SC’s honour
Updated On: 01 September, 2025 08:14 AM IST | Mumbai | Ajaz Ashraf
By failing to terminate the revision of Bihar’s electoral roll, which brazenly seeks to strip lakhs of voters of the right to exercise their franchise, the apex court risks staining its legacy
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As the custodian of the Constitution, mass disenfranchisement cannot but compromise the Supreme Court’s dignity. Representation pic/iStock
When Shankar Dayal Sharma made a Presidential Reference to the Supreme Court, in January 1993, seeking its opinion on whether a Hindu structure existed at the site of the Babri Masjid before it was built, a five-member bench declined to furnish it. In their opinion, different from the arguments of the other three judges, Justice AM Ahmadi and Justice SP Bharucha said, “Ayodhya is a storm that will pass. The dignity and honour of the Supreme Court cannot be compromised because of it.”
More than three decades later, for protecting its honour and dignity, the Supreme Court must forthwith terminate the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar’s electoral roll. Such a step would entail conducting this year’s Assembly elections in Bihar on the basis of the electoral roll that was revised and updated in January. This electoral roll suffers from imperfections, but it will not trigger mass disenfranchisement, which will almost certainly happen with the one produced through the SIR process.
As the custodian of the Constitution, mass disenfranchisement cannot but compromise the Supreme Court’s dignity and honour, for it didn’t stay the SIR exercise at its inception. Another month of the SIR and it will likely become a fait accompli in Bihar.
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