Hyderabad MP and AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi approaches Supreme Court challenging SIR

The Chief Justice of India Surya Kant indicated that the court would check and take up Owaisi's plea along with the connected matters.

Published Oct 14, 2026 | 1:41 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 14, 2026 | 3:01 PM

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Synopsis: The petition adds to a growing set of pleas before the top court on the SIR exercise. Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and ten other senior opposition leaders have also moved the court, alleging irregularities in the SIR process.

AIMIM president and Member of Parliament from Hyderabad, Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday, 14 October, approached the Supreme Court challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

The petition adds to a growing set of pleas before the top court on the SIR exercise. Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and ten other senior opposition leaders have also moved the court, alleging irregularities in the SIR process.

Advocate Nizamuddin Pasha mentioned the writ petition before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. He urged the court to list it on Thursday, 15 October, along with other similar petitions already slated for hearing.

The Chief Justice of India Surya Kant indicated that the court would check and take up Owaisi’s plea along with the connected matters.

The petition

According to LiveLaw, the petition raises questions concerning the exercise of ECI’s constitutional powers, including whether such powers may be exercised without collective decision-making by the Commission, whether statutory forms and procedures may be altered through software, whether software-engineered classifications and objections may displace the statutory jurisdiction of Electoral Registration Officers and whether opaque procedures, differential treatment of electors, and arbitrary inclusion and deletion practices violate Articles 14, 15(1), 21, 325 and 326 of the Constitution.

The Livelaw further reported that Owaisi noted that the availability of the power to ECI does not foreclose judicial scrutiny of the manner and legality of its exercise. The prayers sought include:

Declare that the decisions affecting SIR not duly authorized in accordance with law including Section 18 of the CEC Act are liable to be set aside.
Declare that the forms prescribed under the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 cannot be superseded or supplemented by alternative forms or substantive conditions introduced through portal modifications or executive instructions unsupported by law.
Direct the ECI to forthwith restore Form 6 on the ECINET portal to the form prescribed under the 1960 Rules and direct that no application for inclusion in the electoral roll be obstructed, rejected or kept pending on account of the applicant’s inability or refusal to answer the additional declaration, and that every application so obstructed, or rejected be received and decided afresh in accordance with law.
Declare that no elector may be excluded or required to re-establish eligibility solely based on software-generated flags.
Direction quashing the additional declaration introduced in the online Form 6 on ECINET, and deletions shown to have been effected in violation of the prescribed procedure.
Constitute an independent Committee to audit ERONET, ECINET and the BLO application, examine the legality and distributional impact of additions and deletions, and recommend safeguards.
Direction to the ECI and Union to disclose records, file notings, correspondence and legal or administrative advice relied upon in formulating and implementing SIR
Suspension of the SIR process pending the hearing and final disposal of the petition.

Petition by INDIA bloc leaders

The INDIA bloc’s ‘Chalo Delhi’ march to the Supreme Court on Monday, 12 October, culminated with a petition signed by 11 INDIA bloc leaders being submitted before the Supreme Court by the Congress legal team.

The leaders included Mallikarjun Kharge (INC), Rahul Gandhi (INC), Saugata Roy (TMC),, Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), Sanjay Raut (Shiv Sena – UBT), MA Baby (CPI-M), D Raja (CPI), Mahua Majhi (JMM), Supriya Sule (NCP) and ET Mohammed Basheer (IUML).

While the respondents are Election Commission of India, CEC Gyanesh Kumar and ECI Members Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi.

The petition demanded sacking of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the scrapping of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Review petition against Bihar SIR verdict

Owaisi also filed another petition seeking review of the Bihar SIR judgment which upheld the legality of Election Commission’s SIR of electoral rolls.

The LiveLaw reported, though not party to the original Bihar SIR case, Owaisi has filed the review in the capacity of an elector, an elected representative and the leader of AIMIM whose Bihar State President has filed a writ petition concerning Bihar SIR.

CJI Surya Kant upheld the legality of the SIR of electoral rolls done by ECI and observed that electoral SIR advances the Constitutional imperative of free and fair elections.

The review petition relies on publicly available reports and journalistic investigations, as the underlying internal file notings, correspondence and records concerning the Commission’s decision-making process have not been disclosed in the public domain. Owaisi seeks consideration of the newly disclosed material and production of the relevant official records by ECI.

Also Read: Rahul Gandhi files petition against ECI in Supreme Court

(Edited by Sumavarsha, with inputs from Sreshta Ladegaam)