SC Orders ECI to Display Voter Discrepancy Lists in Tamil Nadu Offices

A bench led by the Chief Justice of India Surya Kant issued more directions on a batch of pleas challenging the Election Commission of India's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls in Tamil Nadu on the ground of procedural irregularities.

Those whose names appear in the list may submit documents, either personally or through authorised representatives, within 10 days from the date the logical discrepancy list is displayed. The list will also mention brief reasons for the discrepancies. Objections can be filed at the sub-divisional level offices, the Court said.

The Court also directed all district collectors to follow the Election Commission of India's instructions and deploy adequate personnel to ensure the smooth conduct of the SIR process.

Senior Police officials have been directed to maintain law and order and ensure that the process continues without any disruption.

"The DGP and Commissioner of Police in Tamil Nadu are directed to ensure that there is no law and order problem created and ensure that law and order is well maintained, and the entire exercise shall be done smoothly", the Court noted.

The Court added that the ECI would hopefully ensure compliance with these directions during the ongoing SIR process in other states as well.

The petitioners moved the apex court shortly after it had issued a flurry of directions over ECI's SIR in West Bengal. With respect to the exercise being carried out in West Bengal, certain parties had earlier moved the Supreme Court challenging the Commission's SIR on ground of procedural lapses, including people's names being categorised in the Logical Discrepancy list.

Earlier, with respect to SIR in West Bengal, the apex court had directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to display the names of the electors falling under the 'logical discrepancies' category in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in West Bengal. It has now issued similar directions with respect to SIR in Tamil Nadu.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which is among the petitioners before the Court, has challenged the SIR on the ground that the decision to conduct it is unconstitutional, exceeds the powers of the Election Commission, and is contrary to the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. Subsequently, other parties, including Vijay's TVK, also moved the apex court challenging the SIR in the State and seeking an extension for people to file their objections over names being excluded from the voter rolls.

The ECI had extended the deadline for filing claims and objections for the SIR in Tamil Nadu until January 30, 2026. This followed an earlier extension in December 2025, which had set the draft publication date to December 19, 2025.

On January 28, 2026, the Supreme Court sought a response from the ECI on a plea (filed by the DMK) to apply the same transparency measures and guidelines to Tamil Nadu that the Court had previously ordered for West Bengal.

- ANI