Advocates at the Patna High Court staged a protest on Wednesday, 14 October 2026, against alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and condemning police action against lawyers who had demonstrated in Delhi. The demonstration, organised by the Indian Association of Lawyers (IAL), Patna High Court, was held at Gate No. 4 of the court premises.

The Core Allegations

Protesters raised sharp questions over the reported deletion of more than 13 crore citizens' names from electoral rolls during the SIR process. They further demanded an explanation for why names that were removed are now reportedly being restored — a reversal that, they argued, itself requires a public accounting from the Election Commission of India (ECI) and its three commissioners.

The advocates called on the three election commissioners, including Gyanesh Kumar, to hold a press conference and respond directly to questions that arose following a news report published in September. Transparency in both the deletion and restoration process was a central demand of the protest.

What the Lawyers Said

Senior Patna High Court advocate Yogesh Chandra Verma addressed the gathering, describing the police action against lawyers who had participated in a peaceful protest in Delhi as 'highly condemnable.' He asserted that peaceful demonstration is a democratic right and that detaining protesters amounted to suppression of those rights.

'The Bihar Bar Council strongly condemns this incident, and the entire legal community registers its protest against this action,' Verma said. Senior advocates Ramjeevan Babu and Uday Pratap Singh also participated in the demonstration, along with other members of the legal fraternity.

Political and Institutional Context

This comes amid a broader national conversation over the integrity of voter roll management. Critics argue that the SIR exercise — designed to clean up duplicate or ineligible entries — has, in practice, led to the removal of legitimate voters, disproportionately affecting marginalised communities. The reported scale of 13 crore deletions has drawn scrutiny from legal bodies and civil society groups across multiple states.

Notably, the Delhi protests by lawyers that preceded Wednesday's Patna demonstration indicate that discontent with the ECI's handling of the SIR is not confined to a single state. The Bihar legal community's solidarity with Delhi advocates signals a widening front of institutional pushback.

Key Demands of the Protesters

The demonstrators reiterated four principal demands: the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar; a press conference by all three election commissioners to answer questions from September's reporting; full transparency in the deletion and restoration of voters' names; and accountability for decisions taken during the revision exercise.

Whether the Election Commission responds formally to these demands — or the protests spread further — will shape the next phase of this developing controversy.