Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Electoral Rolls

An electoral roll is the official list of voters for a constituency. Only people whose names are on this list can vote. A Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, is a very detailed check of this list, in which it is rebuilt almost from scratch. Officials go from house to house, collect forms from every voter, and check who is eligible. The aim is to add every eligible person and remove names that should not be there.

Why does a voter list need revising?

A voter list changes all the time. Young people turn 18. People move to new cities. People die. Sometimes the same person gets registered in two places by mistake. If the list is not cleaned, it may carry names of dead or shifted voters, and it may miss new ones. You can think of it like a school attendance register that is never updated.

After a few years, it no longer matches who is actually in the class. A clean list is needed for free and fair elections.

What does the Constitution say?

Three articles form the base:

• Article 324 gives the Election Commission of India (ECI) the power of "superintendence, direction and control" over preparing electoral rolls and conducting elections.
• Article 325 says there will be one general electoral roll for each constituency. No one can be left out only because of religion, race, caste or sex.
• Article 326 gives adult suffrage. Every Indian citizen who is at least 18 years old, and is not disqualified by law, can be registered as a voter. The 61st Amendment Act, 1988 lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.

Which law governs it?

The main law is the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (RP Act, 1950), along with the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

• Section 16: disqualifies a person from registration if they are not a citizen of India, have been declared of unsound mind by a competent court, or are disqualified for corrupt practices or election offences.
• Section 19: a person can be registered if they are 18 or above on the qualifying date and are ordinarily resident in that constituency.
• Section 21: covers preparing and revising the rolls. Section 21(3) lets the ECI, at any time and for reasons recorded in writing, order a special revision of the roll for any constituency or part of it, "in such manner as it may think fit". The SIR is carried out under this power, read with Article 324.
• Sections 22 and 23: allow corrections to entries and the inclusion of new names.
• The proviso to Section 22 is a key safeguard. (A proviso is a condition attached to a section.) The ERO cannot correct, shift or delete a person's entry because they have moved or are not eligible, unless that person first gets a reasonable opportunity of being heard. A 2010 amendment added that the facts must also be properly verified first. Rule 21A repeats this safeguard in the rules. Dead voters are the usual exception.
• Section 24: gives two stages of appeal against an ERO's order. The first appeal goes to the District Magistrate or an officer of equal rank. The second appeal goes to the Chief Electoral Officer of the state.
• Section 31: makes it a crime to knowingly give a false statement or declaration in writing while the roll is being prepared, revised or corrected, or while a name is being added or removed. The punishment is jail for up to one year, or a fine, or both.
• Section 32: punishes the officials themselves. If an ERO, BLO or any other officer doing roll work breaks their official duty without a good reason, they can be jailed for at least three months and up to two years, and fined. A court can take up such a case only on a complaint made by order of the ECI or the state's Chief Electoral Officer.

Who does the work?

Think of it as a chain from Delhi down to your street:

• Election Commission of India: gives directions for the whole country.
• Chief Electoral Officer (CEO): supervises the rolls in each state (Section 13A).
• District Election Officer (DEO): the district-level officer (Section 13AA).
• Electoral Registration Officer (ERO): the officer legally responsible for preparing the roll of each assembly constituency (Section 13B). The ERO decides who is added or removed.
• Booth Level Officer (BLO): a local official who visits homes, hands out forms and collects them.

Types of revision

Students often mix these up:

• Summary revision: the usual yearly update. The existing list is published as a draft. People file claims and objections. There is no full door-to-door survey. When it is held specially, usually before elections, it is called a special summary revision (SSR). For about two decades before the 2025 SIR, the ECI kept the rolls updated through yearly SSRs.
• Intensive revision: the list is prepared fresh, through house-to-house enumeration.
• Special revision: ordered by the ECI at any time under Section 21(3), in the manner it chooses.
• Special Intensive Revision: a special revision carried out in an intensive way. The last large intensive revisions in most states were held around 2002 to 2004.

How does an SIR work, step by step?

1. BLOs visit every house and give each listed voter an enumeration form to fill and sign.
2. Voters return the forms, with documents where required.
3. A draft roll is published. Names whose forms were not returned may be left out of it. BLOs mark voters they could not trace as ASDD: Absent, Shifted, Dead or Duplicate. These names are left out of the draft roll. A person wrongly marked ASDD can ask to be added back during the claims period by filing Form 6 with a declaration and documents.
4. A claims and objections period follows. People can apply to add names or object to wrong entries.
5. The ERO hears the cases and decides. A person must get notice and a chance to be heard before their name is removed. Rule 21A of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 says this: before deleting a name because the person has shifted or is not eligible, the ERO must give them a fair chance to explain why the name should stay.
6. The final roll is published. Anyone unhappy with the ERO's decision can appeal under Section 24.

What are the voter forms?

These are fixed by the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960. For example, Rule 13 says that every claim to add a new voter's name must be made in Form 6, signed by the applicant.

• Form 6: application to add a new name to the roll.
• Form 6A: for overseas Indian voters.
• Form 6B: to give an Aadhaar number, on a voluntary basis.
• Form 7: objection to someone's name, or a request to delete a name.
• Form 8: correction of details, shifting of residence, or replacement of the voter ID card.

The Central Government makes these rules after consulting the ECI (Section 28 of the RP Act, 1950). So a change in a prescribed form normally needs a change in the rules.

The new Form 6 declaration (2026)

During the SIR, the ECI began using a new declaration in Form 6. A new applicant must state whether they or their parents were "mapped" in the previous SIR. Mapped means their names were matched with the voter list of that earlier revision. Petitioners say the form was changed without amending the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.

On 12 October 2026, the Supreme Court said it has neither approved nor disapproved the new Form 6. Its May 2026 SIR judgment did not examine the form, because the form did not exist then. As of October 2026, the Court is examining whether the new form is valid.

Recent reforms

The Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 made two big changes. First, there are now four qualifying dates a year: 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October. So a young person does not have to wait a whole year to register after turning 18. Second, EROs can ask voters for their Aadhaar number to confirm identity, but giving it is voluntary.

India's recent SIR experience

On 24 June 2025, the ECI ordered an SIR in Bihar. Voters had to give one of 11 listed documents. On 8 September 2025, the Supreme Court directed that Aadhaar be accepted as a 12th document, but only as proof of identity, not citizenship. About 47 lakh names fell off Bihar's roll of about 7.89 crore.

A second phase began on 27 October 2025 in 9 states and 3 Union Territories. For example, Kerala published its final roll on 21 February 2026 with about 2.69 crore voters, about 8.97 lakh fewer than its October 2025 roll. On 14 May 2026, the ECI announced a third phase in 16 states and 3 Union Territories, covering about 36.73 crore voters.

With it, the SIR covers the whole country except Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Their schedule will come later, after the Census work and the snow season. On 27 May 2026, a Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant, with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi, upheld the ECI's power to conduct the SIR under the RP Act.

On 15 October 2026, the ECI ordered a special summary revision under Section 21 in 17 states and Union Territories, with 1 January 2027 as the qualifying date. Draft rolls come out on 12 November 2026 and final rolls on 4 January 2027. Most of these states had already finished their SIR in the first two phases. So the SIR rebuilds the list once, and the lighter summary revisions then keep it up to date.

Key court cases

• Lal Babu Hussein v. Electoral Registration Officer (1995): The Supreme Court held that a person already on the roll cannot be removed only on suspicion of not being a citizen. They must be told the reason and given a fair chance to reply. An earlier entry carries real weight as evidence.
• SIR judgment (27 May 2026): The Court upheld the SIR. It noted the safeguards built into the process: a draft roll, claims and objections, reasoned orders and appeals under the law. It said that being on an earlier roll is useful evidence but not a "perpetual guarantee" against fresh checking. It limited the 1995 judgment to the facts of that case.
• On citizenship: The ECI may look into citizenship, but only to decide whether a name goes on the roll. It cannot declare anyone a non-citizen. If it has a doubt, it can only decline to include the name. The final decision on citizenship belongs to the authorities under the citizenship law.
• Deletion is not a citizenship verdict: Removing a name from the voter list does not mean the person has been declared a non-citizen. People deleted from Bihar's roll on citizenship grounds had to be referred to the competent authority within four weeks. That authority must give them notice and a hearing. If they are found to be citizens, their names go back on the roll.

Commonly confused concepts

• Electoral roll vs voter ID (EPIC): The roll is the legal list that decides who can vote. The Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) is only an identity card. If your name is not on the roll, the card alone will not let you vote.
• Deletion vs disqualification: Deletion removes a name from the list (for death, shifting or duplication). Disqualification under Section 16 means the person is not allowed to be registered at all, for example because they are not citizens.
• Deletion from the roll vs loss of citizenship: The ECI decides only who is on the voter list. Deciding who is a citizen is the job of the authorities under the Citizenship Act, 1955. So a deleted voter does not lose citizenship because of the deletion (Supreme Court, 27 May 2026).
• RP Act, 1950 vs RP Act, 1951: The 1950 Act deals with voter lists, seat allocation and delimitation. The 1951 Act deals with conducting elections, candidate disqualification, corrupt practices and election disputes.
• Chief Electoral Officer vs Chief Election Commissioner: The CEO is a state-level officer. The Chief Election Commissioner heads the ECI in New Delhi.

Issues, criticism and the way forward

• Risk of exclusion: Poor people, migrant workers, women who shifted after marriage and people without documents may find it hard to prove eligibility. A wrong deletion takes away the most basic democratic right.
• Burden of proof: Critics point out that an SIR can shift the burden onto the voter to prove eligibility. Supporters say periodic checks are needed to remove duplicate and ineligible names.
• Citizenship checks: The ECI can refuse registration to non-citizens under Section 16. But deciding citizenship is a complex legal question, and courts have asked for fair procedures.
• Tight timelines: Revisions done in a few weeks put pressure on BLOs and leave voters little time to respond.
• Appeals backlog: Large numbers of appeals need enough tribunals or appellate officers to decide them in time.
• Centralisation vs local control: The law makes the ERO responsible for each roll. EROs record additions, shifts, corrections and deletions on a computer system called ERONET. Since 22 January 2026, ERONET works as the electoral-roll part of ECINET, the ECI's single online platform that joins more than 40 of its apps and websites. Moving control to central digital systems raises questions about accountability. Supporters say central systems reduce errors and duplicates. The ECI says only the ERO can take the legal decision on each entry.
• Way forward: Suggestions include clear written rules for each SIR, enough time for claims, door-to-door help for vulnerable voters, published data on every deletion and its reason, and faster appeals.

Concepts to Know

• Constituency: An area whose voters elect one representative to the Lok Sabha or a state assembly.
• Qualifying date: The date on which a person's age and residence are checked for registration. If you are 18 on that date, you can be registered.
• Ordinarily resident: A person who normally lives at a place. Owning a house there alone does not make someone ordinarily resident.
• Enumeration: Counting and listing people by visiting each house.
• ASDD: Short for Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate. It is the label for voters who could not be verified during house-to-house checks. Their names are left out of the draft roll unless they file a claim.
• Draft roll: A temporary version of the voter list published so that people can point out mistakes before it becomes final.
• Adult suffrage: The right of every adult citizen to vote, without conditions of wealth, education or property.