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The names of 65 lakh voters deleted from Bihar's draft electoral rolls have now been made public. The move comes after the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission (EC) to disclose details of the deletions carried out during the special intensive revision (SIR) of voter lists.

Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar confirmed on Sunday that the information has already been uploaded on the websites of the state’s chief electoral officer (CEO) as well as district magistrates in the poll-bound state within 56 hours after the court’s order. The names excluded from the draft electoral roll, along with reasons for non-inclusion, are now available online to ensure complete transparency.

The Supreme Court had issued the directive last week while hearing multiple petitions challenging the SIR process in poll-bound Bihar. The EC has defended the revision exercise, asserting that it was conducted strictly as per the guidelines laid down by law.

A bench of justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi had set August 19 as the deadline for uploading the lists and asked the poll body to file a compliance report before the next hearing on August 22.

Explaining the system, Kumar underlined that India’s electoral framework for Parliamentary and Assembly elections follows a multi-layered, decentralised system. Electoral Registration Officers (EROs)—mostly Sub-Divisional Magistrate-level officials—are responsible for preparing and finalising the rolls with the help of Booth Level Officers (BLOs). 

Once the draft electoral rolls are published, both digital and physical copies are sent to all political parties and also made available on the Election Commission’s website. A one-month window is then provided for electors and political parties to file claims and objections, seeking either inclusion of eligible citizens or exclusion of ineligible names.

The draft electoral roll for Bihar was published on August 1, 2025. Citizens and political parties can file objections or request inclusions until September 1, 2025. The final electoral roll will be published after this review period.

The Chief Election Commissioner also cautioned against “misinformation” regarding the SIR, saying the exercise was carried out purely as part of the democratic process. The move to publish all deleted names online, he stressed, should eliminate doubts and ensure complete transparency ahead of the elections.

"The SIR exercise has not been done in the last 20 years... The SIR exercise has been carried out more than 10 times in the country. The main purpose of SIR is to purify the voter list... The SIR exercise is being carried out after receiving many complaints from political parties," he added.