We Have Constitutional Duty To Ensure Electoral Rolls Don't Have Foreigners; SIR Isn't NRC : ECI To Supreme Court

In the challenge to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls being carried out across states, the Election Commission of India yesterday told the Supreme Court the Indian Constitution was 'Citizen-centric', and it is the constitutional duty of the ECI to ensure that no foreigners remain on the electoral rolls. The ECI also said that it was not concerned with 'rhetorics' run by political parties on the issue. 

The bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing the batch of pleas challenging the validity of SIR.

Sr Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the ECI, commenced his arguments yesterday.

At the outset, Dwivedi submitted that Articles 323, 325 and 326 of the Constitution read with Sections 15, 16 and 19, S. 21(2) and (3) of the RP Act do not foreclose exercise of power by the ECI in the field of revision of electoral roll. 

He added, "On the contrary, the rules expressly envisage that, having recorded reasons, the ECI can deviate. To what extent it can deviate- that would be another issue, but the field is not totally foreclosed." 

"Our whole constitution, when it said democratic republic- the intention was to make it citizen-centric." 

To substantiate this, Dwivedi referred to various key constitutional provisions where appointments in the three organs of the government mandate citizenship as a crucial requirement. These include provisions on the appointments of the President, Vice President, Member of Parliament, Member of the Legislative Assembly, Judges of the Supreme Court, and High Courts. 

In this context, he cited the grounds of disqualification of an MP under Article 102 (d), which provides - "If he is not a citizen of India, or has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a foreign State, or is under any acknowledgement of allegiance or adherence to a foreign State". 

Dwivedi then referred to Article 103, which states that the final decision to disqualify by the President will be based on the opinion obtained from the ECI. 

He thus reiterated, "All vital appointments, no appointments can be made unless the person is a citizen, so our constitution is citizen-centric predominantly." 

Expanding on this premise, he added that the term 'citizens' under Article 326 has to be inquired by the competent authority, and it is here that ECI's constitutional duty comes to ensure that the electoral roll does not have any foreigners. 

The Counsel referred to how, during the creation of the constituent assembly, Indians objected to having separate electorate for the Europeans with weighted reservations as colonisers should not have a say in the making of India's constituent assembly. 

Drawing from that, Dwivedi opined, " Art 326, when it says citizens, that is something which has to be enquired by the competent authority, what should be nature- summary etc, that's a different question, but competence- that's a constitutional duty, to ensure that on the electoral roll there should not be any foreigners, like the Europeans, even if there is 1 or 10 or 1000s foreigners- they have to be excluded." 

The Counsel clarified that the ECI is not concerned with political 'rhetoric' and was focused only on dispensing its constitutional duties. He said: 

"We are not concerned here as the ECI, of the rhetoric of the political parties- who is saying what, political parties may adopt extreme positions- I am not commenting on that at all. As the ECI, its our constitutional duty to ensure that there is no voter (left out)...perfection is a goal we wish to achieve, but not rarely achieved in any field." 

Dwivedi also addressed the arguments of the petitioner that the present SIR is being done like a parallel NRC. He said that the present SIR exercise cannot be equated to NRC registration and made the following distinction: 

"It was said that we were carrying out a parallel NRC, but that was rhetorical, because the NRC register includes all the people of India, whereas under the electoral roll, the citizens included are above the age of 18 years; persons less than that age are not included in the electoral roll. A person of unsound mind, if he is a citizen, he will be excluded from the electoral roll, but will be part of the NRC. He is a citizen still, but disqualified (from voting)."

"So therefore, electoral roll preparation is not a parallel NRC on the face it, yes, for the sake of rhetoric- it's only in Assam, where NRC was earlier done again." He added. 

The bench will continue to hear the matter on January 8. 

Case Details : Association for Democratic Reforms and Ors. v. Election Commission of India, W.P.(C) No. 640/2025 and connected matters