‘We've Power To Revise Electoral Rolls, Exclude Foreigners’: EC To Supreme Court Amid SIR Row

Last Updated:January 06, 2026, 22:20 IST

The Election Commission told the Supreme Court it must revise voter rolls to exclude foreigners and ensure only citizens are listed, as per its duty.

Election Commission of India. (File pic: PTI)

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday asserted that it has the constitutional power and competence to undertake a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and a duty to ensure that no foreign nationals are included as voters.

While appearing before a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi in the Supreme Court, advocate Rakesh Dwivedi made the submission during final hearings on a batch of petitions challenging the poll panel’s decision to carry out the SIR exercise in several states.

Dwivedi argued that the Constitution is predominantly citizen-centric, noting that key constitutional functionaries such as the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, and judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts must be Indian citizens, citing provisions such as Article 124(3) of the Constitution relating to the appointment of Supreme Court and high court judges, news agency PTI reported.

“All vital appointments … no appointments can be made unless the person is a citizen, so our Constitution is citizen-centric predominantly," Dwivedi said.

Referring to Articles 324, 325 and 326 of the Constitution, read with Section 16 of the Representation of the People Act, he said that the poll body’s authority to revise electoral rolls is not foreclosed by statute and that the Commission retains constitutional competence to ensure the purity of voter lists.

Referring to constitutional schemes, he said, “The (constitutional) article, when it says citizens, that is something which has to be inquired by the competent authority. What should be the nature, summary, etc., that is a different question…. There is a constitutional duty to ensure that on the electoral roll, there should not be any foreigners."

The poll panel is not supposed to respond to political parties’ rhetoric, the senior advocate said. “I am not commenting on the political parties, as the Election Commission, our duty is that no foreigner should be there…. It is to be seen that the power is there and the competence is there," he added.

Resuming his arguments, Dwivedi posed a central constitutional question and asked “whether Article 324 of the Constitution, which vests the Election Commission with powers of superintendence, direction and control over elections, is entirely displaced by statutory provisions, or whether its application must be examined on a case-to-case basis".

Dwivedi took the bench through colonial-era electoral practices, beginning with the introduction of separate communal electorates in 1909 and the limited franchise under the Government of India Acts, when only about 15 per cent of the population had voting rights.

He argued that the expansion of the franchise was a central goal of India’s freedom struggle. “Not only Article 326, but the entire Constitution, when it speaks of a democratic republic, reflects an intention to create a citizen-centric polity," he said.

Addressing concerns that the SIR exercise could resemble a parallel citizenship determination similar to the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Dwivedi stressed that the two serve fundamentally different purposes.

“The NRC includes all persons, whereas the electoral roll includes only citizens above the age of 18," he said, adding that persons of unsound mind or otherwise disqualified are also excluded from voter lists.

“On the face of it, the electoral roll is not like the NRC," he said, reiterating that Article 326 permits only citizens to vote and that citizenship must be determined by a competent authority.

Even if there are 10 or thousands of foreigners on the rolls, they have to be excluded, he said, clarifying that the EC is not making political judgments but discharging its constitutional obligation.

The senior advocate is scheduled to resume his arguments on Thursday.

Earlier, the bench had questioned whether the EC is barred from conducting inquiries in cases of doubtful citizenship and whether such an inquisitorial process falls outside its constitutional mandate.

(With inputs from agencies)

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