If You Keep Filing…”: SC Chief Justice Frustrated by Flood of SIR Pleas, Demands Focus on Legality

You want the raw report from the ground? Today in the Supreme Court, the judges were visibly running out of patience. The issue is the Special Intensive Revision (SIR)—that huge, controversial process the Election Commission is running to clean up the voter lists.

The thing is, petitions are just flooding in. Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala… everyone is sending in separate pleas. And the court is tired of it.

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The CJI’s Warning: “Gaining Limelight”

Chief Justice Surya Kant was clearly agitated. He essentially accused the petitioners—many of whom are political figures, let’s be real—of trying to “gain limelight.”

The quote was sharp: “Keep filing more and more petitions and keep politicising the issue,” he warned.

What happened? And then the court ordered this: a major shift. They told the clerks to segregate the petitions state-wise. The court wants to hear each state’s specific issues separately. Why? Because they need to cut through all the political noise. They need to get to the main issue: the legality of the SIR itself. That’s the core problem, or nothing.

The CJI also clarified something crucial. The decision on the legality of the SIR process in Bihar has to be decided first. Why Bihar? Because that ruling will impact the entire ongoing process across all the other states. It sets the precedent.

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The Ground Realities and The Migrant Issue

But the lawyers are still bringing up the ground realities. And these realities are important, too.

• A senior advocate for Uttar Pradesh said the sheer timeline set by the Election Commission is simply not enough for a state that huge. It’s too quick for a massive place like UP.

• Another counsel for Tamil Nadu flagged the Pongal issue. Migrant workers, they said, return only after the festival. So, if the timeline isn’t extended, those people get left out.

The West Bengal Anarchy Concern

This is where the court got really concerned. A plea came in talking about the history of poll violence in West Bengal.

The petitioner is asking for the deployment of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF)—the central police—to protect the Booth-Level Officers (BLOs). Why? Because electoral offices are being “gheraoed” (cornered or surrounded).

The Chief Justice was quick to issue a notice to the Centre on this. He stated point-blank that “anarchy cannot be allowed.” It is absolutely vital that the poll body ensures the security of those BLOs who are doing the hard, on-the-ground verification work.

And in another twist, the SC also issued a notice to the Election Commission asking why Assam was totally left out of the SIR exercise, given its unique history with voter lists and citizenship issues.

So, the Supreme Court is definitely frustrated, trying to manage a mountain of state-specific grievances while also fighting to maintain its focus on the constitutional validity of the entire SIR process. It’s an ongoing, messy legal and political battle.

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