India’s highest judicial body, the Supreme Court, issued a directive on Thursday, October 16, 2025, emphasizing its expectation that the Election Commission of India (ECI) will diligently review and rectify any typographical errors or other inaccuracies found in the final Bihar electoral roll. The Court underscored the ECI’s responsibility to implement appropriate remedial actions following its extensive Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
A judicial bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi announced that further legal deliberations concerning the Bihar SIR process would take place on November 4th.
The Election Commission reported that despite the final electoral roll being published on September 30, not a single voter had lodged an appeal regarding the deletion of their name from the list.
However, Advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the NGO ‘Association of Democratic Reforms,’ contended that claims made by a voter whose name was allegedly omitted from the final list were accurate, directly contradicting the ECI’s assertion of falsehood during the October 7th hearing.
The Bench further highlighted that the electoral roll would be finalized on October 17 for constituencies participating in the first phase of polling, and on October 20 for those in the second phase.
Previously, on October 7, the Supreme Court had specifically requested the ECI to furnish comprehensive details regarding 3.66 lakh voters who appeared in the initial draft voter list but were subsequently removed from the final roll following Bihar’s SIR initiative, citing ‘confusion’ surrounding these exclusions.
Upon releasing Bihar’s final electoral list on September 30, the ECI disclosed a significant reduction: the total number of eligible voters decreased by approximately 47 lakh, settling at 7.42 crore. This figure is a notable drop from the 7.89 crore electors recorded before the rigorous Special Intensive Revision (SIR) undertaken by the Election Commission.
Interestingly, this final count still represents an increase of 17.87 lakh voters compared to the draft list published on August 1, which had initially removed 65 lakh voters due to various reasons such as deaths, migration, and duplicate entries.
Ultimately, 21.53 lakh new voters were added to the draft list, while 3.66 lakh names were removed, leading to the reported net increase of 17.87 lakh electors.
The Bihar Assembly elections, encompassing 243 seats, are scheduled to proceed in two phases: 121 constituencies will vote on November 6, with the remaining 122 constituencies casting their ballots on November 11. Vote counting is set for November 14.