Bombay HC Refuses Interim Relief In Maharashtra Voter Roll Revision, Defers SIR Plea By 4 Weeks

Mumbai, October 5, 2026: The Bombay High Court on Monday refused to pass any interim order or maintain status quo on Maharashtra’s ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, saying it would follow the Supreme Court’s directions and avoid parallel proceedings on the issue.

A bench of Chief Justice MC Tripathi and Justice Advait Sethna said the Supreme Court was already seized of challenges concerning the SIR exercise and had restrained High Courts from entertaining petitions relating to its validity or other aspects of the process.

“There are restraining orders already… No purpose will be served by a parallel litigation. Let the Supreme Court hear the matter first and we will consider it later,” the Chief Justice said.

Petition Raises Voter Roll Concerns

The court was hearing a petition filed by Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) Youth President Sagar Ramesh Gawai and Rafique Ilahi Khan, raising concerns over the implementation of the SIR in Maharashtra, particularly the house-to-house enumeration and collection of documents.

Appearing for the petitioners, advocate Prakash Ambedkar and Hitendra Gandhi sought interim directions to maintain status quo on the electoral rolls for three months and restrict the distribution of the revised rolls. He also urged the court to direct that no names be deleted from the voter list until the petition was considered.

The bench, however, declined the oral request. “We are not going to pass any such orders. We will follow judicial propriety,” the court said.

Petitioners Flag Possible Exclusions

The petitioners claimed that nearly 2.10 crore voters could face exclusion under categories such as Absent, Shifted, Dead and Duplicate (ASDD), as well as cases marked “Uncollectable Enumeration Form”. They alleged that such voters could be excluded without mandatory statutory notices, an opportunity of hearing or reasoned orders.

Ambedkar also sought a direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to file its response to the petition. Senior advocate Ashutosh Kumbhakoni appeared for the ECI.

The petitioners clarified that they were not seeking to halt the SIR exercise or questioning the ECI’s authority to conduct it. Instead, they sought greater transparency in the methodology and legal basis of the revision, disclosure of orders and reasons for the exercise, multilingual instructions and equal access to physical and digital verification mechanisms.

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Hearing Adjourned For Four Weeks

The bench adjourned the hearing by four weeks, observing that it would consider the matter after the Supreme Court proceedings.

The SIR process in Maharashtra is scheduled to culminate with publication of the final electoral roll on November 4.

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