The Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, begun in Bihar and extended to States like West Bengal, required voters to file fresh enumeration forms and produce specified documents, with EPIC cards initially not treated as sufficient proof. Civil society groups, opposition parties and individual voters challenged this before the Supreme Court, fearing mass disenfranchisement of migrants, the poor, and those lacking documents, leading to a closely watched verdict.
The case turned on Article 324's broad power over superintendence of electoral rolls, tested against Article 325's guarantee of non-discriminatory enrolment and Article 326's mandate of adult suffrage, read with Article 14 and Article 21. Since Article 329 bars judicial interference with elections except via post-poll election petitions, petitioners framed their challenge to the preparatory roll-revision stage, invoking Article 32 writ jurisdiction, distinguishing it from a challenge to an ongoing poll.
Remember: Article 324 is wide but not immune from Article 14 scrutiny; Articles 325-326 anchor universal suffrage as basic structure; and roll-revision, being pre-poll, is generally not shielded by Article 329's bar on election challenges.