Asaduddin Owaisi Challenges Election Commission Voter Revision in Supreme Court
Asaduddin Owaisi filed petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls over alleged procedural irregularities and voter deletions.
Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi filed a petition and a subsequent review petition in the Supreme Court of India on October 13, 2026, challenging the Election Commission of India's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Owaisi alleges that the commission violated the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, by making decisions without requisite collective approval. He specifically questioned unauthorized changes to statutory enumeration forms and sought the publication of booth-wise deletion details.
The Supreme Court agreed to hear the plea alongside petitions from other opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, who are seeking an independent audit of voter databases. This legal action follows a May 27 judgment in which the court had previously upheld the commission's June 2025 SIR order. Owaisi also called for the repeal of laws granting legal immunity to the commission and criticized the de-notification of Jantar Mantar as a protest site.
The dispute has sparked a broader political clash. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh accused the government of stripping nearly 14 crore Indians of their voting rights under the guise of removing infiltrators. Union Home Minister Amit Shah defended the SIR exercise, claiming the opposition intends to register infiltrators as voters and predicting a crushing defeat for the Congress party in the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.
