Bihar SIR Voter List Row Hearing LIVE Updates: The Supreme Court Thursday, while hearing pleas challenging the electoral rolls revision in Bihar ahead of the Assembly polls, observed that exclusion of non-citizens is a prerogative of the Union Home Ministry and not the Election Commission. “Purging non-citizens from the electoral rolls is the prerogative of the Home Ministry, not the Election Commission,” said Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia in an oral observation.

The Supreme Court hearing so far: A vacation bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Joymalya Bagchi is hearing the pleas challenge the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioners, argued that the preliminary legal issue is that the SIR shifts the burden of proof from the EC to the voter to prove their eligibility and citizenship. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, also appearing for the petitioners, said that deletion of voters affects the level playing field. While responding to the Centre’s argument that a court intervention at this stage was premature, the SC orally observed that once the electoral roll is prepared, elections could be notified within a short notice and once the elections are notified, no court would interfere with the process.