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Special Intensive Revision

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Special Intensive Revision (SIR)
CEC Gyanesh Kumar announcing the nationwide SIR process (October 2025)
Agency overview
Formed1952 (first intensive revision)
TypeElectoral roll revision programme
JurisdictionGovernment of India
StatusActive
Headquarters
Agency executive
Parent agency
Election Commission of India
Government of India
Websiteeci.gov.in

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is an exercise undertaken by the Election Commission of India to verify and revise electoral rolls through house-to-house enumeration, pre-filled forms, and verification of old voter data.[1]

The SIR aims to ensure that electoral rolls across India are accurate, by eliminating the names of deceased, permanently shifted, duplicate & non-citizen voters, while ensuring that eligible citizens are not left out.[2][1] The nationwide SIR process was announced on 27 October 2025 by the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar from Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.[3][4][5]

In May 2026, the Supreme Court of India upheld the legitimacy of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and held it to be in consonance with the Representation of the People Act, noting that the Election Commission has a Constitutional obligation to conduct free and fair elections.[6][7]

Background

[edit]

The Election Commission of India (ECI) periodically conducts an "intensive revision" of electoral rolls, which involves door-to-door enumeration of voters. An intensive revision was last conducted in 2003. During 2025–2026, ECI ordered a "special intensive revision" (SIR), starting with the state of Bihar in July 2025. The meaning of "special" has not been specified. The Indian Express opined that it indicates the use of ECI's "discretionary powers" under Section 21(3) of the Representation of People Act, 1950.[8] Former Chief Election Commissioner O. P. Rawat stated that the term "special" is used when exercise does not conform to the standard template of revision, but tinkers with certain elements.[9][a] The most important change from the previous intensive revisions to 2025–2026 was the role of the enumerators in clarifying the electors' citizenship.[10]

Citizenship determination in India is a complicated issue since the Indian citizenship law is a complex mix of citizenship-by-birth and citizenship-by-descent. Large sections of the populace do not possess documents that can demonstrate their citizenship, especially the poor, the disadvantaged sections and women. An exercise to construct a National Register of Citizens for Assam took five years to complete, causing inexorable trauma to millions of citizens and eventually left out 1.9 million people from the register, whose status is yet undetermined. The exercise is generally considered a failure.[11]

Since the 1980s, the ECI has been concerned about preventing the inclusion of foreign nationals in electoral rolls. It also received multiple complaints from the chief ministers of border states about the enrolment of foreign nationals. But the ECI had upheld the "sanctity" of the existing rolls, by placing the burden of proof on those objecting to the inclusion rather than the electors themselves.[8]

During the 1997 intensive revision of the electoral rolls in Assam, the Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) were asked to decide on the inclusion or exclusion of the electors. Based on spot checks by Local Verification Officers, the EROs doubted the citizenship of roughly 300,000 people, who were then marked as "D-voters". Many of them were referred to Foreigners' Tribunals for deciding their citizenship status, put into detention camps, and even pushed into Bangladesh.[10]

Overview

[edit]

Bihar SIR

[edit]

The ECI ordered an SIR in the state of Bihar on 24 June 2025, four months before the state was scheduled to hold its next Legislative Assembly election.[12] Booth Level Officers (BLOs) made house-to-house visits and distributed pre-filled enumeration forms containing names of the electors along with Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers and other data. The electors were asked to affix a photograph, fill in their date of birth as well as the names and EPIC numbers of their parents. If they were not already included in the "legacy" electoral rolls from around 2003, they also had to attach proof of their citizenship. The ECI stipulated 11 types of documents they could provide. Some of the common identification documents carried by people, such as Aadhaar cards, EPICs, ration cards and National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) documents, were excluded. Identification documents had to be provided by electors not only for themselves but also their parents as warranted by the Citizenship Act (along with amendments in 1986 and 2003).[12][b]

People had considerable difficulty coming up with the stipulated documents. For example, birth certificates were among the stipulated documents, but were carried by only 2 percent of the population. Matriculation or college certificates were carried by only a 10 percent of the people of age 40–60.[12] It was later reported that the majority of the voters did not have even a single one of the 11 stipulated documents.[13] However, unofficially, it was learnt that the BLOs had been told to accept Aadhaar cards and EPICs as verifying documents. Due to the tight schedule, the document upload was carried out after the draft roll was published and the ECI reported that documents were received from 98.2% of the electors.[12][14]

When the draft election roll was published in early August, it had 72.4 million names, 6.5 million fewer than the prevailing roll. ECI said that the deletions included 2.2 million dead, 3.6 million that migrated out of the state, and 0.7 million were duplicate entries.[15] An analysis by Hindustan Times found no discernible pattern to the deletions.[16]

Supreme Court review

[edit]

In early July, petitions were filed in the Supreme Court by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and several opposition politicians. ADR argued that the onerous requirements for documents violated the universal adult franchise under Article 326 of the Indian Constitution. PUCL argued that ECI was mandated to enable the right to vote for all adult citizens and so it had to ensure that those with "document deficits" were not left out of the process.[12]

In the initial hearing on 10 July, the judges framed the case in terms of three questions: whether the ECI had the right to undertake such an exercise, whether it was following the correct procedure, and whether it had allowed sufficient time for the process. The ECI argued in its counter-affidavit that it was vested with the power to scrutinise the eligibility of voters, which included citizenship. The court contested ECI's claims that the 11 documents were widely available and pressed it to consider the inclusion of Aadhaar cards and EPICs.[12]

The eventual judgment came in May 2026, after the second round of SIR exercises had already been initiated. The court upheld the ECI's right to conduct SIR as part of its constitutional obligation, as well as to verify citizenship status to the "limited extent of determining inclusion or exclusion from the electoral roll". Electors purged from the rolls on suspicion of being non-citizens should be referred for adjudication by a competent authority under the Citizenship Act.[17][18] The Court also observed that the enquiry of the ECI must itself be quasi-judicial in character, ensure the right to a fair hearing, and the persons should be informed of the grounds on which they are suspected to be foreigners.[10] The Supreme Court also directed the ECI to include Aadhaar cards among the allowed identification documents, and to publish all the names deleted from electoral rolls in an accessible form.[19]

Second phase

[edit]

The second phase of SIR exercises covering 12 states and union territories were announced on 27 October 2025. They included the four states, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry, where Assembly elections were due to be held in 2026. In addition, SIR was also conducted in Chattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.[13] Assam, another state due to hold elections in 2026, was left out of the SIR process on the grounds that the Supreme Court-monitored NRC exercise was yet to conclude.[13]

The ECI modified the procedures based on the experience from Bihar and the issues raised during the Supreme Court hearings. Documents were not collected in the enumeration phase. Instead, the enumeration forms had been modified in order to link the electors with their own records or their parents' records in the previous intensive revision conducted anywhere in the country. Only in cases where such "linkages" could not be made with "legacy" electors would documents be required.[13] The electors that could not establish such linkages were called "unmapped" electors. In addition, the ECI deployed ERONET software which flagged cases of "logical discrepancies", which involved spelling variations, age/relationship mismatches and other inconsistencies. People mapped with six or more progeny and those with an age gap of less than 15 years or more than 50 years with their parents were flagged. All such cases were asked to appear before the EROs for hearings.[20]

In all states except West Bengal, draft rolls were published in December and January and then hearings by EROs were conducted.[20]

Case of West Bengal

[edit]

In poll-bound West Bengal, the SIR process worked differently as noted by The Indian Express. In December, the ECI wrote to the state's Chief Electoral Officer to appoint "micro-observers" to keep a watch on EROs and Assistant EROs trying to decide the cases. These new officials alleged that the EROs were not deleting the ineligible electors and were uploading improper documents. The Supreme Court, which was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the process, noted the "trust deficit" between the state government and the ECI. It then used its powers under Article 142 of Indian constitution to pass a decree in the interest of complete justice, and placed all the remaining cases under judicial review.[20]

When the revised electoral roll was published on 28 February 2026, 6.18 million names had been deleted, for reasons such as death and migration, and, in addition, another 6 million names were put "under adjudication".[21] The latter category included voters flagged for "logical discrepancies", initially numbering 13.6 million, and "unmapped" voters, initially numbering 3.2 million. After some filtering, the eventual number came down to 6.1 million, and it appeared that these voters would be barred from voting in the upcoming election.[21]

Special Intensive Revision (SIR) phases

[edit]

Phase I

[edit]

The first phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was undertaken as an initial rollout in select States, with Bihar being the primary example. The exercise was conducted between June and September 2025. According to reports, approximately 47 lakh (4.7 million) electors were removed from the electoral rolls in the State following verification, representing around 5–6% of the total electorate.

Phase I (SIR)[22]
Total VotersRevised VotersReduction (%)States CoveredU/T CoveredStarting DateEnd Date
7.89 croreDecrease7.42 crore5.95%1—June 2025September 2025

State-wise Statistics

[edit]
State[23]Total VotersRevised VotersVoters deleted (absolute)Deletion (%)
Bihar7.89 croreDecrease7.42 crore47 lakh5.95%

Phase II

[edit]

The second phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) was started on 27 October 2025, covered nine States and three Union Territories, including Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, among others. The exercise resulted in a reduction of approximately 10.2% in the total number of electors, bringing the count down from over 50.99 crore to 45.81 crore. In absolute terms, Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest net deletion of 2.04 crore voters, followed by West Bengal with 83.86 lakh. In percentage terms, Andaman and Nicobar Islands recorded the highest deletion at 16.6%, while Lakshadweep recorded the lowest deletion at 0.3% (181 voters).[24]

As per the Election Commission of India, a total of approximately 91 lakh Voters (Not in absolute terms) electors were removed from the electoral rolls in West Bengal since October 2025, while around 2.04 crore(Not in absolute terms) names were deleted in Uttar Pradesh following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process conducted between October 2025 to April 2026.[25][26]

Phase II (SIR)[27]
Total Voters Revised Voters(Absolute Numbers) Reduction (in%) States Covered U/T Covered Starting Date End Date
50.99 crore Decrease45.81 crore 10.2% 9 3 27 October 2025 4 December 2025
S.I.R Phase II States

State-wise statistics

[edit]
State/UT Total Voters (before draft list) Revised Voters (final roll) Voters deleted (absolute\net) Change(%)
Uttar Pradesh[28] 15.44 crore 13.39 croreDecrease ~2.05 crore -13.21%
West Bengal 7.69 crore 6.86 croreDecrease -83.86 lakh[24][c] -10.9%
Gujarat[citation needed] 5.08 crore 4.40 croreDecrease -68 lakh -14.5%
Madhya Pradesh[29] 5.74 crore 5.39 croreDecrease -34.25 lakh -5.96%
Chhattisgarh[30] 2.12 crore 1.87 croreDecrease -25 lakh -11.8%
Rajasthan[31] 5.46 crore 5.15 croreDecrease -31 lakh -5.7%
Tamil Nadu[32] 6.41 crore 5.67 croreDecrease -74 lakh -11.5%
Kerala[33] 2.78 crore 2.69 croreDecrease[34] -9 lakh -3.24%
Goa[35] 11.85 lakh 10.57 lakhDecrease -1.28 lakh -10.8%
Puducherry 10.21 lakh[36] 9.44 lakhDecrease[36] -0.77 lakh -7.54%
Andaman and Nicobar Islands[37] 3.10 lakh 2.58 lakhDecrease -0.52 lakh -16.6%
Lakshadweep[38] 0.57 lakh 0.57 lakhDecrease -206 -0.35%
Total[39] (Phase II) 50.99 crore 45.81 croreDecrease -5.18 crore -10.2%

Phase III

[edit]

On May 14, 2026, The Election Commission of India has announced the Special Intensive Revision, SIR Phase-III, which will be conducted in a phased manner across sixteen states and three Union Territories.

The states included in this phase are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Tripura, Telangana, and Uttarakhand. The Union Territories covered are the National Capital Territory of Delhi, Chandigarh, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

CEC Gyanesh Kumar has appealed to all electors to enthusiastically participate in Phase III of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and fill their Enumeration Forms.

S.I.R Phase III States

During SIR Phase-III over 3.94 lakh Booth Level Officers will go house-to-house to 36.73 crore electors assisted by 3.42 lakh Booth Level Agents appointed by political parties during the Enumeration Phase.

With this, the SIR of Electoral Rolls will cover the entire country in Phase-III except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. After considering the completion of Phase-II of the Census in these three States and UTs and due consideration of the weather in the upper reaches or snow bound areas, SIR schedule for these three State and UTs will be announced later.

This is a significant step in the voter list revision process aimed at ensuring updated and accurate electoral rolls across the country.

SIR is a participative exercise involving all stakeholders including electors, political parties and election officials. ECI has requested all political parties to appoint BLAs for each Polling Booth, in order to ensure full participation of political parties so that SIR is conducted with complete transparency and full participation of political parties.

In the first two phases of the SIR in 13 States and UTs covering nearly 59 crore electors, over 6.3 lakh BLOs and 9.2 lakh BLAs appointed by political parties were involved in various stages of the SIR process.[40][41]

Reported effects and responses

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In West Bengal, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls announced in October 2025 generated controversy and uncertainty among sections of the population, including Hindu refugees from Bangladesh and members of the Matua community. Reports also documented concerns among Bangladeshi nationals who had entered India illegally about the possible consequences of the revision.[42][43] Concerns among some residents and political opponents centred on the possibility that the SIR could be a precursor to implementing the National Register of Citizens (NRC).[44]

Several issues were reported following the implementation of SIR in West Bengal. Media reports described an outflow of Bangladeshi nationals from the state, with India Today reporting that 200–300 people were arriving daily at the Hakimpur checkpost near Basirhat to return to Bangladesh; the report said many had entered India illegally years earlier and had obtained Indian identity documents, including Aadhaar and voter cards, through agents or other intermediaries.[45] Other reporting attributed the departures to fears among undocumented Bangladeshi nationals that the SIR's verification process could lead to detection, legal action or deportation, with some associating the exercise with the NRC.[44] At the same time, the SIR generated anxiety among Hindu refugees from Bangladesh, particularly members of the Matua community, many of whom were concerned about their inability to establish linkage with the 2002 electoral roll despite holding Indian identity and other documents.[46] Reports also documented suicides among some Hindu migrants from Bangladesh during the SIR period; political parties and families attributed some of these deaths to anxiety over the revision and possible NRC-related consequences, although such causal claims were disputed.[47] BJP leaders sought to reassure Hindu refugees that they could seek citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), while reports indicated that uncertainty over the interaction between the CAA and SIR persisted among sections of the community.[48][49]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ↑ It was noted by analysts that there is no mention of any "Special Intensive Revision" in the 1960 Election Rules, under which the ECI normally operates. ECI claimed to the Supreme Court that it had conducted an "SIR" in Bihar in 2003, but could not provide evidence for the claim.[9]
  2. ↑ If their parents were born after 1987, the Citizenship Act also requires one or more grandparents to be a citizen. But the ECI spared this requirement. The ECI also did not require any further checks for "legacy" electors from 2003. So the SIR did not involve a full citizenship verification.
  3. ↑ Based on the reported deletion of 83.86 lakh voters, representing 10.9% of the electorate, the total number of voters before the revision is estimated to be approximately 7.69 crore, with the revised electorate at around 6.86 crore.

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 "Special Intensive Revision (SIR): Why is it important? Why ECI is doing it now and what you need to do". The Indian Express. 28 November 2025.
  2. ↑ "Election Commission may roll out pan-India special electoral roll revision this month". The Economic Times. 7 September 2025.
  3. ↑ "EC to announce nationwide SIR schedule on Monday; first phase to cover Bengal, Kerala, TN". The New Indian Express. 26 October 2025.
  4. ↑ "Pan-India SIR: ECI to announce first phase dates on Monday; 10-15 states to be covered". The Times of India. 27 October 2025.
  5. ↑ "SIR: India's voter roll revision is worrying migrant workers". www.bbc.com. 24 November 2025.
  6. ↑ Krishnadas Rajagopal (27 May 2026). "Supreme Court upholds SIR exercise as an advancement towards free and fair elections". The Hindu.
  7. ↑ "Bihar SIR verdict Supreme Court hearing, Election Commission highlights". The Hindu. 27 May 2026.
  8. 1 2 Ritika Chopra, Why is the Election Commission revising electoral rolls in Bihar, and when have revisions happened previously?, The Indian Express, 11 July 2025.
  9. 1 2 Shivasundar, Nationwide SIR is a planned disenfranchisement of the poor and minorities, The News Minute, 4 November 2025.
  10. 1 2 3 Darshana Mitra, The SIR, A Long Road to Exile?, The India Forum, 1 May 2026.
  11. ↑ Kaushik Deka, Voter rolls: Who is a citizen?, India Today, 6 October 2025. ProQuest 3255890550
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sagar (31 July 2025), "The Bihar Model: Revising electoral rolls could disenfranchise millions and threaten their citizenship", The Caravan
  13. 1 2 3 4 Soni Mishra, SIR 2.0: Bihar's shadow spreads, Frontline, 30 October 2025.
  14. ↑ Bihar SIR: Received documents from 98.2% voters, says Election Commission of India, The Hindu, 24 August 2025.
  15. ↑ Geeta Pandey, New voters list in Indian state includes wrong photos and dead people, BBC News, 11 August 2025.
  16. ↑ Abhishek Jha, Nishant Ranjan, Roshan Kishore, Bihar SIR: Key takeaways from draft electoral roll after ECI’s revision, Hindustan Times, 2 August 2025.
  17. ↑ Krishnadas Rajagopal (27 May 2026). "Supreme Court upholds SIR exercise as an advancement towards free and fair elections". The Hindu.
  18. ↑ "Supreme Court upholds Special Intensive Revision, backs powers of Election Commission". The Week. 27 May 2026.
  19. ↑ R. Sai Spandana, Revision of Electoral Rolls in Bihar | Day 5: SC directs ECI to publish details of deleted names, Supreme Court Observer, 14 August 2025.
  20. 1 2 3 Damini Nath, How West Bengal SIR played out differently from other states, what it means for rest of country, The Indian Express, 7 March 2026. ProQuest 3309272501
  21. 1 2 Kaushik Deka, Special Intensive Revision: Voters await verdict, India Today, 16 March 2026. ProQuest 3311535744
  22. ↑ "press release". PIb. 23 July 2025.
  23. ↑ "Bihar SIR". PIB. 30 September 2025. pp. -.
  24. 1 2 "Consolidated voters' list of 9 States and 3 UTs that underwent SIR Phase II trimmed by 10.2%". The Hindu. 12 April 2026.
  25. ↑ "91 lakh voters deleted in SIR: Hindus hit in numbers, Muslims in proportion — What's happening in West Bengal?". Mint.
  26. ↑ "Over two crore names deleted as final list released in U.P. SIR exercise". The Hindu. 11 April 2026. p. 1.
  27. ↑ "Press Release". Press Trust of India. 4 November 2025.
  28. ↑ "U.P SIR". The Hindu. 11 April 2026.
  29. ↑ "34L voters deleted in MP's revised final electoral rolls after SIR". The Times of India. 22 February 2026.
  30. ↑ Kaiser, Ejaz (21 February 2026). "SIR process in Chhattisgarh: Nearly 25 lakh names removed; final voter list has 1.87 crore electors". The New Indian Express.
  31. ↑ "Rajasthan: 31.36 lakh names removed in final rolls under SIR 2026". The Indian Express. 21 February 2026.
  32. ↑ Gupta, Ankit (23 February 2026). "Tamil Nadu Final SIR List Released: Over 74 Lakh Names Deleted". ABP Live.
  33. ↑ "Kerala SIR: 2.69 crore voters in final list; 53,229 names deleted". thefederal.com. 21 February 2026.
  34. ↑ "press release" (PDF). ceo.kerala. 21 February 2026.
  35. ↑ "press release" (PDF). CEO Goa. 21 February 2026.
  36. 1 2 "press release" (PDF). CEO Puducherry. 16 December 2025.
  37. ↑ "Andaman Final Voter Roll Out: 5,269 Names Deleted After SIR Exercise". ABP Live. 21 February 2026.
  38. ↑ "CEO Lakshadweep". ceolakshadweep.gov.in. Retrieved 15 April 2026.
  39. ↑ "Election Commission trims electoral rolls by 10.2% across 12 states, UTs". The Economic Times. PTI. 11 April 2026.
  40. ↑ "ECI announces SIR Phase-III across 16 states and three UTs". News on Air. 14 May 2026.
  41. ↑ Chakrabarty, Sreeparna (31 May 2026). "SIR enumeration phase begins in Odisha, Mizoram, Sikkim and Manipur". The Hindu.
  42. ↑ "West Bengal SIR: Bangladeshi Hindus, Matuas seek answers amid uncertainty". Hindustan Times. 27 November 2025.
  43. ↑ "Hundreds of Bangladeshis flee Bengal over fears linked to SIR drive". India Today. 20 November 2025.
  44. 1 2 "Hundreds of Bangladeshis flee Bengal over fears linked to SIR drive". India Today. 20 November 2025.
  45. ↑ "Ground report: SIR triggers exodus, Bangladeshi immigrants throng border checkpost in Bengal". India Today. 20 November 2025.
  46. ↑ "Hindus from Bangladesh, now Indian citizens, in SIR fear grip". The Times of India. 4 December 2025.
  47. ↑ "Bengal: Bangladeshi settlers under focus after 3 suicides during SIR". Hindustan Times. 2 November 2025.
  48. ↑ "Bengal: Bangladeshi settlers under focus after 3 suicides during SIR". Hindustan Times. 2 November 2025.
  49. ↑ Sinha, Bhadra (17 December 2025). "'I don't know where to go'—persecuted Hindu migrants stuck in between CAA backlog & SIR scrutiny". ThePrint.
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