New Delhi, Nov. 28 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday said that the Election Commission of India (ECI) cannot be faulted for conducting a special intensive revision (SIR) across the state of Bihar if the reason for undertaking the exercise is common across all constituencies. Hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the SIR in Bihar, a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi said, "This is not a routine updation of electoral roll but a special revision. Any process which is fair and transparent, it can go on, unless it can be shown the ECI has no power to do it." The court was responding to arguments by senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing for some of the petitioners who submitted that the SIR exercise is unconstitutional as determining citizenship of voters is not the job of the poll panel. Further, Singhvi argued that even if it is assumed that the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 (ROPA) permits special revision of rolls under section 21(3), it has to be constituency-specific and individual-specific and cannot be an en masse process. Section 21(3) states, "Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (2), the Election Commission may at any time, for reasons to be recorded, direct a special revision of the electoral roll for any constituency or part of a constituency in such manner as it may think fit." The bench gave an illustration that if the commission learns that there are large-scale dead voters in a state, can it be restricted to 50 constituencies alone. "If reasons to be recorded are common to all constituencies of the state, will it not be discriminatory on part of EC to pick and choose constituencies." It further added, "In such a scenario, EC will compulsorily be required to undertake this exercise for every constituency in the state if reasons exist. It is open for you to argue that no reasons are recorded or reasons are not sufficient or the power itself is not available." Singhvi, assisted by advocate Neha Rathi, told the court that for the past six months the court has been rendering "healing touch" to the SIR exercise in Bihar without realising that the poll panel has no power to conduct such an exercise....