Dr. Deepak Rai, Bhopal.
The ongoing discussion surrounding the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) extends beyond the raw number of deletions from electoral rolls. It centers on the core mechanisms of how voter lists are compiled, verified, and updated, as well as how decision-making authority is structured within the polling panel. At its heart, the SIR exercise underscores a fundamental administrative requirement: maintaining accurate, up-to-date voter databases while ensuring accessible and inclusive registration for every eligible citizen. The addition of 2.37 crore Gen Z voters between June 24, 2025, and October 2026—translating to roughly 16 lakh every month or nearly 50,000 per day—reflects the continuous objective of keeping democratic participation broad and representative.
Understanding the necessity of an SIR requires distinguishing it from routine summary revisions. A Special Intensive Revision involves a deeper, ground-level verification of existing entries to confirm whether voters are alive, ordinarily resident at their recorded addresses, and free from duplicate enrollments across constituencies. The legal framework for this exercise is anchored in Article 324 of the Constitution and Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, which authorizes the Commission to order special revisions for recorded reasons.
Periodic intensive revisions are necessitated by ongoing demographic changes, including population shifts, unrecorded deaths, and duplicate entries. In its proceedings on May 27, 2026, the Supreme Court observed that the last intensive revision in Bihar had been conducted in 2003. Given the two decades of rapid urbanization, large-scale migration, and non-reporting of deaths that followed, the Court recognized that the SIR serves a legitimate public purpose directly tied to maintaining roll integrity and conducting free and fair elections.
In Bihar, where the SIR commenced on June 24, 2025, the exercise achieved 98.01% coverage at one stage, with 7.17 crore enumeration forms (90.89% of the total) received and digitized. The drive identified approximately 20 lakh deceased electors, 28 lakh permanently migrated electors, 7 lakh duplicate enrollments, 1 lakh untraceable electors, and about 15 lakh unreturned forms. Across 30 States and Union Territories, the draft deletion figure of over 13 crore entries became a central point of public attention. However, because draft deletions account for deceased, migrated, duplicate, or unverified records, a draft entry removal is an initial administrative step in data reconciliation rather than an immediate disenfranchisement of a voter.
To ensure accuracy without compromising inclusion, a series of operational safeguards were integrated into the revision process. For electors issued notices due to unmapping or logical discrepancies, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) conducted home visits to collect and upload supporting documents to ECINet, reducing the need for citizens to visit Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) offices in person. Hearings were facilitated online where feasible, and voters were permitted to authorize adult family members to represent them.
District Election Officers established dedicated help desks and organized special camps to assist migrant laborers, night-shelter residents, and underprivileged groups. For example, in Goa, targeted BLO outreach assisted 81 out of 97 identified missed voters in submitting Form 6 to restore their registrations. The field operational mobilization was significant: Bihar alone engaged 77,895 existing BLOs, 20,603 newly appointed BLOs, and over 4 lakh volunteers to support elderly and disabled citizens. Furthermore, recognized political parties appointed approximately 1.56 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) in the state—part of more than 20 lakh BLAs nationwide—to audit draft rolls alongside official personnel, complemented by 100% webcasting across polling stations on election day.
The administrative framework of the SIR followed a phased schedule, beginning with the initial order on June 24, 2025, followed by schedules on October 27, 2025 (for 12 States/UTs) and May 14, 2026 (for 19 States/UTs), which the ECI stated were unanimously agreed upon by all three Election Commissioners. To allow adequate time for public participation, claim and objection deadlines were extended in key jurisdictions, including Delhi (to October 30, 2026) and Maharashtra (to October 12, 2026).
Technological infrastructure and Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) security protocols operated under established statutory guidelines. EVMs remain standalone devices unconnected to external networks, safeguarded by First Level Checking (FLC), two stages of machine randomization in the presence of candidate agents, mandatory pre-poll mock polls, candidate verification of burnt memory, and compulsory VVPAT slip matching across five randomly selected polling stations per Assembly constituency—measures reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in ADR vs. ECI (April 2024). Additionally, a committee headed by a Senior Deputy Election Commissioner, including independent experts from an IIT or IIIT, was assigned to review and optimize the ECINet digital platform.
Ultimately, the credibility of electoral roll revisions depends on maintaining a balance between database accuracy and procedural fairness. Recent judicial observations underline that the statutory power of the ECI to conduct an SIR and the legality of specific administrative decisions within that exercise remain distinct questions. Ensuring that voter rolls are accurately maintained while providing clear, accessible mechanisms for addressing errors remains a foundational element in sustaining public confidence in the electoral system.