Dave also criticised the Supreme Court's approach to challenges to SIR exercises undertaken in many states.

Speaking at the 17th K M Bashir Memorial Lecture on “Are We Failing the Constitution or has the Constitution Failed Us?”, Dave highlighted that Dr BR Ambedkar said that political equality through universal adult franchise was essential for democracy.

“Ambedkar says, in politics we will have equality. You know, adult franchise. Of course, now, thanks to Election Commission and Supreme Court of India, that franchise is going away. Because in the name of the SIR, everybody, even my wife and I have received notices as to whether we should really be included in voters list or not”, Dave said.

The Election Commission announced the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar on June 24, 2025. The first challenge to the exercise was filed before the Supreme Court shortly thereafter, with petitioners also seeking interim stay on the SIR process. Subsequently, petitions were filed challenging the SIR exercises in other states as well.

However, the Court did not stay the exercise. The Bihar SIR was completed with publication of the final electoral roll on September 30, 2025. The Bihar Assembly election was subsequently held on November 6 and 11, 2025.

The Supreme Court reserved judgment in the principal batch after hearings concluded in January 2026 and delivered its judgment only on May 27, 2026, upholding the Election Commission's power to conduct SIR.

By then, the exercise had also been completed in some other states. Thus, the Supreme Court's principal ruling on the validity of SIR came after the completion of the exercise and the conduct of Assembly elections in Bihar, Puducherry, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

In the Bihar proceedings, the Court upheld the ECI's power to conduct SIR, while directing safeguards including the acceptance of Aadhaar as an identity document for the claims process.

Dave was sharply critical of the Court's approach to and judgment on SIR. He said that the Supreme Court is not willing to interfere even when it sees that fundamental rights being breached. He also remarked that the Court allowed the exercise, and now it has come out that the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was taking decisions without the other two Election Commissioners.

Dave was referring to the report by The Indian Express earlier this week that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi formally objected on record at least 14 times over a period of 10 months to decisions and orders concerning the electoral rolls and SIR. The newspaper reported that the Sandhu and Joshi said the said decisions had been taken without their knowledge or against their recommendations.

“When we talk of democracy, you've seen in last 48 hours how the two Election Commissioners brought out that the Chief Election Commissioner was doing something which was completely wrong and yet nothing was done. The Supreme Court has allowed the SIR exercise to take place and as a result, the elections in Bihar and West Bengal have taken place where we don't know how the results have come about”, he said.

He added, “Because almost 27 lakh people were kept out in West Bengal and equal number in Bihar. Delhi alone is losing 47 lakh and Maharashtra 2 crore of people. So if you are going to keep 13.5 crore Indians as non-Indians, you can imagine what havoc it will play with democracy and the functioning of the democracy.”.

According to the newspaper's investigation, Sandhu's and Joshi's objections included a change to Form 6, which is used for registration of new voters. The Indian Express reported that they objected to the change on the ground that the statutory form could not be amended without a corresponding amendment to the Registration of Electors Rules.

The investigation also reported objections over the centralisation of access to electoral-roll databases. Sandhu recorded concerns that statutory electoral authorities were being denied proper and complete access to the roll-management system, it was reported.

Days after the report, a writ petition has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking criminal prosecution of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged violations of statutory duties in connection with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Dave also criticised the use of financial transfers and welfare schemes in the electoral process, arguing that such measures could influence voters.

“Before Bihar election, every woman got 10,000 rupees in her account. Will it not change, will it not sway her and her husband's or her family's decision to vote? Because then you are expecting more”, he said.

He said such measures were being used to sway the elections, and the electoral process had consequently become completely skewed.