Comparing SIR 2002-04 And 2025-26, Pg8

Key Highlights:

• The Election Commission of India (ECI) initiated a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in June 2025, covering all states and Union Territories in phases.
• The current SIR process has drawn criticism from former Election Commissioners and Supreme Court judges, contrasting with support from other former officials.
• A key issue in the 2025-26 SIR is the exclusion of voters recorded as "absent, shifted, or others" without automatic re-enrollment at new addresses, unlike the 2002-04 SIR.
• The 2025-26 SIR has resulted in the deletion of approximately 13.3 crore voters, with 9.5 crore (71%) falling under the "absent, shifted, and others" category.
• The Supreme Court, in May 2026, affirmed the ECI's constitutional mandate to conduct SIR for multiple or all constituencies in a state.

Detailed Insights:

• The SIR is authorized under Section 21(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, allowing the ECI to revise electoral rolls as it deems fit.
• The 2002-04 SIR involved door-to-door verification using preliminary lists and required supervisors to randomly check at least 25% of households.
• In the earlier SIR, electors who shifted residence were treated as "transfers" and re-enrolled at their new addresses during the same exercise, with the Chief Electoral Officer acting as a clearing house.
• The current SIR places the onus of proving citizenship on the applicant, and those recorded as "shifted" must file Form 8 or Form 6 afresh, contrary to the ECI’s Manual on Electoral Rolls (2023).
• Supervision requirements in the 2025-26 SIR are less stringent, mandating only 10% random verification by supervisors compared to the more elaborate checks in 2002-04.
• Software-generated "logical discrepancies," such as spelling differences or unusual parent-child age gaps, have led to the arbitrary exclusion of a large number of eligible voters.
• The ECI issued instructions on October 9th to cap the number of objection forms (Form 7) an individual can file, addressing concerns about bulk objections.
• The Supreme Court case of Lal Babu Hussein and Others (1995) established that the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) must give adequate "probative value" to an applicant's presence in the existing roll regarding citizenship proof.
• The article suggests a detailed audit of finalized rolls and expedited re-enrollment for eligible voters, including home visits, as a way forward.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Special Intensive Revision (SIR): A large-scale exercise by the ECI to verify and update electoral rolls through house-to-house enumeration and data verification.
• Representation of the People Act, 1950: The Indian law that provides for the preparation and revision of electoral rolls and the qualifications for voters.
• Election Commission of India (ECI): An autonomous constitutional authority responsible for administering election processes in India.
• Electoral Roll: A list of all eligible voters in a particular constituency.
• Form 6: An application form used for inclusion of a name in the electoral roll (for new electors).
• Form 7: An objection form used for removal of a name from the electoral roll.
• Form 8: An application form used for correction of particulars or shifting of residence within the same constituency.